NHS and PRSB creates new standard for healthcare providers to create online records
Parents, carers, and health professionals will soon have access to a standardised digital set of health records for each child in England.
NHS England and NHS Digital have worked with the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) to create the Healthy Child Record Standard, which has now been published in final draft form. The document codifies a framework that all healthcare providers can use for the electronic formatting and content of records concerning children’s medical history.
NHS Digital claimed that, in due course, the creation of this standard “means that everyone involved in a child’s care, including parents, will have access… to a standardised set of paperless, digital child-health records”.
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The PRSB added that the standard forms part of a wider project on the part of the NHS “to improve the health of children by using digital technology that promotes better information sharing”.
Dr Andy Spencer, who served as clinical lead on the project on behalf of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “It is important that we empower parents to get involved in their child’s health and development. When these new standards are implemented, parents will have the same access to their child’s personal health record as health and care professionals, and they will always know who the records are being shared with, and why.”
The final draft of the Healthy Child Record Standard is now subject to review by relevant PRSB member organisations. Healthcare providers are permitted to begin work on incorporating the standard into their operations, but are counselled that it may be subject to minor changes before the final version is published “this winter”, the PRSB said.
