Summary of Care Record Posted or Updated on 24 Jun 2024

Summary Care Record (SCR) is a national database that holds electronic records of important patient information such as current medication, allergies and details of any previous bad reactions to medicines

It is created from GP medical records - whenever a GP record is updated, the changes are synchronised to SCR.

It can be seen and used by authorised staff in other areas of the health and care system who are involved in the patient's direct care but do not need access to the patient's full record.

Benefits

Benefits of SCR include:

• makes care safer
• reduces the risk of prescribing errors
• helps avoid delays to urgent care

For more information about the benefits and uses of SCR, visit Benefits and uses of Summary Care Records in community pharmacy - NHS Digital.

Who this service is for

This service is for authorised clinicians, health and social care workers and/or administrators, in any health or care setting based in England who need to access a patient's information to support their direct care.

SCR does not have a user interface - users must access it indirectly via user-facing applications, namely:

• local point-of-care applications for health and care workers, such as a Patient Administration System (PAS) in a hospital
• the National Care Records Service

Who is included

The original scope of SCR was to provide access to key information in urgent and emergency care settings. Through close consultation with the Expert Advisory Committee, NHS Digital have progressed a number of proof of concepts, to see whether it is beneficial to patient care, to allow other care settings to have access to the SCR. 

The approved care settings to view SCRs are:

• 111
• accident and emergency
• acute assessment
• ambulance
• community care
• GP out of hours
• GP (for temporary or non-registered patients)
• hospital pharmacy
• minor injury units/walk in centres/urgent treatment centres
• scheduled care
• mental health
• health and justice (custody suites)
• hospices
• primary care
• community pharmacy
• substance misuse
• maternity

Who is not included

The care settings that are currently being discussed, or have an active proof of concept but are not approved for further rollout are:

• dentistry (minor oral surgery and community dental providers)
• domiciliary care and care homes
• optometry
• private GP providers
• private hospitals and privately funded healthcare services
• adult social care
• sexual, contraceptive and reproductive healthcare services

Any care setting not listed is currently out of scope for SCR. However, if there is a use case for a new care setting to access the SCR, complete the online expression of interest form.