NHS plans for a single digital care record where patients can book appointments and order prescriptions have been published.
The Integration White Paper aims to enable GPs, pharmacies, hospitals and social care providers to all access the patient’s latest medical information by 2024.
It will be an attempt to tackle the current situation where patients are forced to repeatedly explain their needs to people in different organisations.
The white paper aims to correct a health and care system fragmented by previous Tory reforms under ex-PM David Cameron.
The previous NHS reorganisation by then-Health Secretary Andrew Lansley ushered in an era of free market-style “competition” between providers of care.
Announcing the plans in the House of Commons, health minister Edward Argar said: “Providing local people with a single functional health and care record that everyone involved in care can access in a secure way.
“This will mean every professional having access to the key facts relating to a person’s condition, such as their diagnosis and medications. This will improve care too, with professionals able to make care plans in full knowledge of the facts.”
The single digital care record would allow patients to book appointments, order prescriptions and communicate with different care providers on one online platform.
It is unclear whether the plan would see patients able to view their full medical record online.
Conservative chairman of the Health and Social Care Committee Jeremy Hunt asked about the role of GPs in having a single professional responsible for someone’s care.
He said: “Is it not time to go back to the days when everyone had their own family doctor?”
The plans, worked on with NHS leaders, aim to help different parts of the NHS and local government collaborate, rather than pass on responsibility for the most sick and difficult to treat.
They will aim to ensure there is a “single point of accountability” for local population health and reduce delayed hospital discharges.
Mr Argar continued: “We will ensure strong leadership and accountability, which is critical to delivering integration. Local leaders have a unique relationship with the people they serve.
“Our plan will bring together local leaders to deliver on shared outcomes all in the best interests of their local communities, and encourage local arrangements to provide clarity over health and care services in each area, including aligning and pooling budgets.”
Mr Argar went on: “Local NHS and local authority leaders will be empowered to deliver against these outcomes, and we’ll be accountable for delivery and performance against them.
“Joining up NHS and local authority data means we can provide better insights to local people about how their areas’ health and care services are performing. And with access to more information, they’ll be more empowered to make decisions about where and how they access care.”
Shadow care minister Karin Smyth described the Integration White Paper as “disappointing” and “simply not good enough”.
She said: “Really, where is the clinical leadership, where is the accountability to local people?... Like a house made of crepe paper, this gossamer thin white paper collapses with the faintest breeze of scrutiny.
“Let’s be clear, it’s not a plan, it’s not even a starting strategy, it’s just a series of woolly claims about how things could be better.”
Ms Smyth added: “It’s not any kind of plan for integrated care that people will recognise, it’s aspirations about integrated systems. There is little to explain how a joined up system would be managed, how it would be accountable to the public and patients and service users, how the funding will be allocated and shared or how performance would be assessed and weaknesses addressed.”
She went on: “Crucially there is nothing to address the key barrier to integration which is that social care and the NHS are in different empires with no level playing field.”
It comes as social care in England faces a huge funding blackhole with many providers withdrawing services.
Hugh Alderwick, policy head at the Health Foundation, said: “Better integration between services is no replacement for properly funding them.
“The social care system in England is on its knees and central Government funding over the coming years is barely enough to meet growing demand for care, let alone expand and improve the system.
“More integration is also little good if there aren’t enough staff to deliver services.
“Staffing shortages in health and social care are chronic, yet government has no long-term plan to address them.”
