The PRSB has published a report investigating how information flows between urgent care services.

Overview

At the moment lots of people end up in accident and emergency or hospital, when they could be receiving more appropriate care from other services. Improving the information that is shared by 111 services could help people to get the right care, and free up emergency services for people who really need them.

As part of wider plans to improve emergency services in the UK, NHS England is aiming to standardise the information that is recorded and shared by 111 services.

This new report demonstrates that standardising information allows clinicians to share care records digitally with colleagues in other parts of the health and care system, making care better and safer for patients.

The PRSB recommends developing a standard or set of standards to define exactly what information needs to be made accessible between different emergency services.

The project

The work analysed how information should be shared from NHS 111 clinical assessment services (telephone or remote consultations with doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals) to support referrals into other services and for other uses such as research, audit and planning purposes.

Working in partnership

The report was developed in partnership with NHS England, the Royal College of Physicians’ Health Informatics Unit (HIU) and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.