Emergency Care Summary
Published: 20/10/21
Download Key Facts Document Here - Key Facts - Emergency Care Summary (ECS)
As you know, community pharmacy has been given access (from 2021) to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) to support us to deliver enhanced and efficient patient care across our network. We have worked for many years to get ECS in place and want to ensure that the set up and operation run in a straightforward and simple way for CP Teams to make great use of the information available.
We have produced this Key Facts Sheets in response to some specific questions from our network. We appreciate that the delivery of a full training package has not been possible yet during these challenging times but want to support you to be confident in using ECS to deliver even better patient care. Part of that is helping you to navigate the documents you need to read, understand and sign, identifying the dos and don’ts of this new system.
Background
ECS is a national system - everyone accesses the same system but the administration for users is done at a local level.
ECS and Clinical Portal NHS Boards - Updated August 23
Given the confidential nature of the ECS, the security sign-off in all of the Board Documentation is critical, crucial and must be followed (this is an information governance requirement). All pharmacists and registered technicians must be clear on the details and understand the commitment in signing up to the service. Patient records cannot be accessed without explicit patient consent. Pharmacists and registered technicians are not permitted to view their own records, even where this is just to familiarise themselves with the system.
Two NHS Board Areas – Grampian and Lanarkshire – have sign off at a Pharmacy level. For all other NHS Boards, the sign off is by individual pharmacist and registered technician.
Each pharmacist or registered technician needs to have a separate account for each NHS Board in which they work. This will have an impact on locum and relief colleagues who move between NHS Board areas – if this is you, please register in each of the NHS Board where you work, and maintain each account for use when working in that NHS Board. This is a short-term issue, brought about by the speed of implementation during COVID. A more permanent solution is being sought – details to follow when available.
ECS can be accessed for patients in whichever Scottish community pharmacy they present, irrespective of which health board they live in or the health board where the pharmacy is situated. This means that, providing the pharmacist or reg tech is signed off for ECS access at the pharmacy they are working in, ECS can be accessed, with necessary permission, for any patient registered with a Scottish GP.
All sign up completion forms will have a Fair Warning Representative detailed. The nominated people in this role vary between NHS Boards. In all cases, within any Pharmacy Group, whether CCA or Independent, this will be a nominated person, generally the DPO or similar. In a single owned pharmacy, Fair Warning referrals will go either to a nominated NHS Board representative, generally the Primary Care Community Pharmacy Lead, or in the form of a conversation between an NHS Board representative and the individual pharmacist or technician. In the event of a potential breach, the Fair Warning nominee or individual will be contacted to investigate and report back to the NHS Board with information on the incident. The NHS Board will then action further as appropriate.
It is worth noting, a fair warning breach can be generated for a number of reasons, including the username and the patient name being very similar. This should not deter pharmacy teams from using the system appropriately as this would be unearthed by the Board when investigating.
Lastly, if there is further guidance required to support you and your teams with ECS, please get in touch using the details below.
Useful documents here:
NES also have a 2-page ECS summary which will help you to familiarise yourself with the layout of the patient files. Just login to TURAS Learn and search for “ECS Summary”.
If you have any questions, please contact enquiries@cps.scot
Reporting to the Area Support Pharmacist, you will be responsible for and oversee the delivery of all aspects of the Scottish Pharmacy Contract and optimise the delivery of dispensing and professional services.