North East London ICS offers patients access to a personal health record

North East London Health and Care Partnership, an integrated care system (ICS), is to provide 2.2m patients with secure access to an online personal health record (PHR).

Its contract with Patients Know Best (PKB) will enable patients to see their personal record, which will include the patient’s own data as well as data from health and social care providers. Patients will be able to see, for example, appointment letters, test results and multi-disciplinary care plans. The records will be held on PKB’s platform, but patients will be able to access them through the NHS app.

Patients are now able to register for the PHR, but it will take a few months for the different organisations holding patient data to make that data available to the record.

Putting patients in charge of own care

Martin Wallis, digital programme manager for North East London Health and Care Partnership, said: “The personal health record puts patients in charge of their own care and make it easier for them to work with those who care for them. The record will have information about their own health and wellbeing and provide access to health apps and medical expertise. This new project with PKB will provide a single consistent service for patients in north east London and we look forward to rolling it out in the coming months.”

London was the first NHS region to use NHS England’s procurement framework, the Health System Support Framework (HSSF), to procure a PHR. The award went to PKB, who implemented the first PHR in the North East London Health and Care Partnership last year.

Dr Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, CEO of PKB, said: “The London PHR is the largest in the world. North East London (NEL) residents already receive hundreds of thousands of test results a month from North West London (NWL) providers. Now NEL’s providers will be able to release millions of test results to patients in NWL and the rest of the UK who use PKB.”