NEWS: GPs urged to disable GP Connect

As reported by GP Online, BMA advises practices to turn off GP Connect feature allowing third-party record updates, amid NHS England’s opposition

Turning off this aspect of GP Connect is one of the steps the BMA has suggested that practices could take as part of collective action from August following its current ballot.

However, the BMA said on Friday it had become aware that NHS England had asked GP IT system suppliers EMIS and TPP to prevent practices from being able to do this. Communications from LMCs and the BMA to practices said they should take steps before Monday 1 July and switch off the functionality before the option to do so was removed.

The ability for third parties to add information to the GP patient record was introduced earlier this year when the Pharmacy First scheme was launched. It means details of consultations in pharmacies are added directly to patient records, rather than being sent to the practice by email for practice staff to add.

A statement from supplier TPP on 1 July said that it currently had no plans to change the controls practices have in SystmOne relating to the Pharmacy First record updates. The company said it would not be making any change to the system, despite being asked to do so by NHS England.

GP Connect functionality

An email from the BMA GP committee to practices sent on Friday 28 June said: ‘We are inviting GP partners to follow our guidance and take steps NOW to remove the GP Connect functionality which permits third parties to add codes to GP patient records.

‘We have been alerted to recent communications from NHS England to TPP and EMIS to frustrate this step, and remove GPs’ rights as the data controller to control this, by the start of July.

‘We will be writing urgently to TPP and EMIS to remind them of their legal responsibilities as data processors, but in the meantime advise practices to take action as soon as possible.’

In a video message, BMA England GP committee chair Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer said practices should continue to allow data sharing for direct patient care and allow GP Connect to book in patients from NHS 111.

However, the problem was with new functionality that had been added to enable data sharing from third parties. Dr Bramall-Stainer said this could mean more work being delegated inappropriately into general practice.

She added: ‘When this function was designed, NHS England said they did not want an off switch, but under the GDPR you are the data controller for the patient record. So as the data controller, you do need to have the ability to control what goes into the patient record by third parties.’

Data sharing guidance

The BMA has referred practices to guidance it recently produced on data sharing. The guidance warns that the GP Connect functionality that allows third parties to add data directly into patient records could ‘potentially further enable workload transfer from an external provider directly to the GP in future’.

The BMA says that there is nothing in the GP contract that mandates practices allow third parties to add information to records.

NHS England’s national medical director for primary care Dr Amanda Doyle said it was ‘completely inaccurate’ to suggest any ‘imminent changes’ were being made to stop GPs from switching off this aspect of GP Connect.

She added that there were currently no plans to extend this functionality beyond Pharmacy First to other providers.

However, a statement from TPP said: ‘TPP has recently received a request from NHS England to remove the option for practices to opt-out of incoming Pharmacy First Update Record messages. We are not making this change.

‘We are currently in discussions with NHS England regarding this. We will keep practices updated and no changes will be made without significant prior notification.’

Dr Doyle said: ‘Consultation outcomes from Pharmacy First, including any medicines issued, can now arrive directly into a practice workflow, for checking and filing with one click, which increases clinical safety and reduces the administrative burden.

‘The NHS introduced this functionality to make GPs working lives easier and improve patient outcomes – so it is odd that any GP would choose to turn this service off and revert to manually inputting data from emails, increasing their workload and taking up more time.’