Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (BTHFT) has taken a leading role within the West Yorkshire Health Service by connecting to the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YHCR).
BTHFT, which runs the Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s Hospital as well as community hospitals at Eccleshill, Westbury and Shipley, has been selected by the West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership (WY HCP) to manage a scheme that will share relevant patient data amongst local health and social care providers.
The YHCR is a secured digital system that brings together important information regarding patients who have used services referred by their GP, a local hospital, community healthcare services or mental health teams.
The data being shared in this pilot programme includes clinical appointments, discharge summaries, A&E discharges and radiology reports.
Commenting on the the project the Health and Care Partnership said it “has given the trust a better understanding of patients’ current health needs and how they may change in the future” and “has now provided a foundation to allow people to access and input information into their own health and care records”.
Dr James Thomas, Senior Responsible Officer for the WY HCP digital team, highlighted how West Yorkshire will benefit from the pilot scheme: “Being able to access data quickly, safely and securely will help boost efficiency and make chasing and requesting the same information from the patient a thing of the past.”
BTHFT has worked closely with WY HCP Digital and ReStart Consulting to support the implementation of the system and to later investigate if it could then be rolled out across the region.
Dave Griffith, Informatics Programme Manager at BTHFT, added: “It’s been a fascinating project to manage and will be the basis of our own aspirations to utilise the YHCR more fully and will support our colleagues in their own journeys to provide information to help improve patient care.”
