A NEW system of storing and sharing health and social care information in one place is said to be enhancing patient safety across the county.

Dorset Care Record is a new way of using a shared health and care record, which aims to make it easier and quicker for staff, such as GPs, nurses and social workers to provide patients with the right care.

More than 40,000 patient records within the Dorset Care Record were viewed during the month of August, enabling professionals to have the most up to date health and social care information.

And more than 3,000 health and social care professionals have now completed the mandatory information sharing and security training, ensuring that the records are used correctly and stored safely.

All the partners, which include Dorset’s acute hospitals – University Hospitals Dorset and Dorset County Hospital – two local authorities (Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council and Dorset Council), community and mental health provider Dorset HealthCare and Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group, representing GPs, are providing a range of patient data to the DCR.

Elizabeth Williams, consultant gastroenterologist at University Hospitals Dorset, was the 3,000th professional to complete the training. She sees a range of patients from across the county and believes the new system will help her know more information about the patients she is treating.

She said: “I hope to be able to be find more information on my patients and use it effectively."

Andy Cowling, DCR head of service, said the DCR was not only growing but providing better, more convenient patient care through digital innovation.

Mr Cowling said the introduction of a new system for primary care information for Dorset, introduced earlier this year, had opened up information and data held within GP practice IT systems for use across health and social care.

He said: “The service makes GP medication information available to all appropriate clinicians when and where they need it to support direct patient care, leading to improvements in both care and outcomes.”

Three years after accepting its first demographic information, the DCR will soon pilot its patient health record myDCR - enabling people in Dorset to view their own record, record and monitor health goals and actions, share data with health and social care professionals and receive clinic letters from hospitals about discharge information and appointments.

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