By Gareth Iacobucci
One million electronic health records have been now been transferred using GP2GP, with over 5,000 GP practices across the country now using the service, NHS Connecting for Health has announced.
The GP2GP service, which enables patients' electronic health records to be transferred directly and securely from one GP practice to another, is widely seen as the most popular strand of the Government's national programme for IT.
Connecting for Health said over two thirds of all practices in England are now able to send and receive the patient's entire electronic record when they move from one surgery to the next, resulting in ‘increased patient safety and continuity of care'.
It predicted this number would grow further as more GP practices become hooked up and a greater number of systems are made available later in the year.
The most frequent user of the service in England is Leeds Student Medical Practice in Leeds, which has transferred more than 6,000 records since 2007.
Dr Alan Hassey, member of the Royal College of GPs Health Informatics Group, said: ‘This very significant milestone demonstrates the benefits of the profession and NHS Connecting for Health working closely together.'
Dr John Williams, clinical safety lead for the GP2GP programme, added: ‘It is very encouraging that this has been well received by participating practices and there has been a good clinical safety record. This is just the start - to obtain the full potential of GP2GP we must now go on to enable the majority of remaining practices and refine the transfer process.'
