Motion 41
Pharmacist Access to Patients Records
“That this Congress believes that prompt and effective information sharing between all relevant health professionals creates major benefits for patients and brings improvements to health safety.
“Congress welcomes the current Scottish Government strategy aimed at producing a single care record with read/write capability in real time by both health and social care workers.
“However, progress towards this goal is slow and while pharmacists currently have access to patient information via the Pharmacy Care Record it is not a process that enables proper information sharing between pharmacists and other clinical practitioners.
“It is of concern that some information around supply and advice given using the Pharmacy First scheme is not communicated to GP surgeries. Interventions made by community pharmacists or changes made to treatment by GP surgeries, outpatient departments and elsewhere are often communicated by email or paper. The time lag does not benefit patients and is worse at weekends and holiday periods.
“An increasing number of pharmacists are qualified as independent prescribers, all pharmacy graduates from 2026 will be fully fledged prescribers. However, many pharmacists do not have full and proper access to patient records and are being asked to prescribe drugs without the ability to access relevant information about the patient.
“Congress supports the development of a single integrated patient record system to enable sharing of information between hospital departments, GP practices, community pharmacies and other sites at which prescriptions are written, but this will take time.
“Congress as a matter of urgency and in the best interests of patients calls for all pharmacy teams, wherever they deliver NHS services, to be allowed appropriate and easily accessible read and write access to patient records.”
Mover: Pharmacists’ Defence Association
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