GP2GP – Your Records

Transferring your electronic health record

Here at Penwortham St. Mary’s we utilise an electronic system for transferring patient records to and from other GP surgeries called GP2GP.

GP2GP enables patients’ electronic health records to be transferred directly and securely between GP practices. It improves patient care as GPs will usually have full and detailed medical records available to them for a new patient’s first consultation.

Why it’s needed

• GP2GP is the project that enables patients’ electronic health records (EHRs) to be transferred directly from one practice to another.
• GP2GP starts when a practice accepts a patient onto their list of patients for primary health care and ends when the EHR is transferred from the previous practice into the new GP clinical system.
• GP2GP electronic transfers will be more accurate and secure – and much faster than the current paper-based approach, which can take weeks to complete.

What are the benefits of using GP2GP?

Improved quality and continuity of care

• Full patient Electronic Health Record (EHR) available for the patient’s first appointment, which results in a more focused and informed consultation.
• Past medical history available and information about medication, allergies, adverse reaction.
• Immunisations and vaccinations.

 Improved safety

• Fewer transcribing errors and omissions, the need to key in information from paper records will be greatly reduced.
• Allergies and adverse drug reactions are flagged for review for new patients, resulting in safer prescribing.

 Clinical time savings

• The EHR contains information such as lab results and letters from specialists, which helps in the clinical decision making process. This also means there are fewer request for unnecessary duplicate lab tests.

 Administrative time savings

• The need to key information from paper records is greatly reduced. This results in quicker summarisation of new patient records.
• Attachments are received electronically, which results in time saved not having to re-scan items into patient’s EHR.

 Background to GP2GP

There are some 9,000 GP practices in England. They each currently deal with an average 500 patient record transfers each year. As a university practice we deal with far more, up to 4000 transfers per year!

The process involves:

• Printing out the details of the patient health record held on the GP clinical system and then putting that print-out into the patient’s ‘Lloyd George’ envelope, together with any historical paper records, laboratory forms, hospital referral letters and the letters that result from that referral.
• These documents are then transferred to the new practice via the local medical records transfer process.
• Upon receipt of the Lloyd George, the new practice reviews the information received, summarises the record and enters any appropriate information into their GP clinical system.

The time it takes to receive a patient record from the time it is requested can be anything from a few weeks to a few months. As a result, the new practice often does not have the benefit of the old record when the patient attends for the first consultation. Once received, it can be very time-consuming for the new practice to key in the summary of the record into its own clinical system.

GP2GP, on the other hand, enables an almost instantaneous transfer of a patient’s EHR. As a result, GPs and their teams will be able to provide patients with a safer and more efficient service. Read more about the benefits of GP2GP.