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How we work
Wessex Care Records (WCR) is a collaboration and partnership of existing programmes, comprising of Dorset Care Record (DCR), Care and Health Information Exchange (CHIE), Intelligent Working Programme (IWP), and Population Health Management (PHM). We are also involved in other projects such as personal health records and one medication record.
We are part of the Dorset Integrated Care System (ICS) and the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP).
We refer to ourselves as a strategic partnership – enabling, enhancing and supporting existing approaches to data management, joining up citizen information across historic borders and sharing the learning of our experience.
We have a wide range of health and care stakeholders across the Wessex region who share a common goal of joining up records to ensure they can offer the best care and support to people in Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Our approach
Our approach is described as Leading the way to sharing information. We want to build upon the recognition that Wessex already enjoys for sharing records, which is why the area received national funding for further development by enabling change within existing and established programmes.
Our aim is to enhance existing technology and help reduce the need for duplication of information through interoperability, which means clinicians can easily find stored information about a person irrespective of which care record system it is held within. The clinician will log in to either DCR or CHIE in the usual way. The patient will continue to have one record, on DCR or CHIE.
We are looking to enhance the use of population health management by enabling wider use of analytics throughout the region as well as workforce development to ensure Wessex is at the forefront of data science and its important role in the future of healthcare.
We are also focusing on existing personal health records in the Wessex region to see how best they can join up and integrate with each other and with the NHS App.
The Wessex Care Records partnership wants to ensure the health and care sector can:
Make better use of information
Make working lives easier
Make faster decisions and deliver safer treatment
Join up Wessex with England
Share expertise and learning
Why are we doing this?
Many people think that their health record is already shared across the NHS and social care and while this often is the case, there are issues for those accessing information such as single log in, consistency of information and standardisation. Wessex Care Records wants to add additional, beneficial features such as giving citizens access to their record and providing clinicians with a population health analytics tool.
Wessex Care Records citizen engagement research
Key to the successful implementation of the Wessex Care Records programme will be effective citizen engagement.
We want to make sure that people across Dorset and Hampshire and the Isle of Wight understand how their health and care information is shared and have confidence that this is done safely and securely.
To help to do this, we are carrying out some research on people's understanding of, and attitudes to, information sharing by health and care services as well as where they prefer to get their information from.
This research, which will be carried out between July and September 2022 will consist of four elements:
- a short survey on people's understanding of, and attitudes, to information sharing by health and care services
- a series of focus groups to explore some topics in more detail, including getting participants' views on a range of scenarios on how patient information could be shared
- targeted activities with specific groups, to ensure that the research is inclusive and recognises health inequalities
- a survey of GPs to help the programme to equip and support them in keeping patients informed on how their data is shared and to answer their questions
The research programme has been developed in conjunction with colleagues from CHIE and Dorset Care Records and the engagement teams from the Dorset and Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care Systems through a WCR Citizen Engagement Working Group.
Headline results from the research survey will be available from September 2022.
If you'd like to complete the survey please click here if you live in Dorset click here (link will be live in a few days) and click here click here if you live in Hampshire or Isle of Wight.
You can see the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions on citizen engagement research here
For more information, please get in touch with Tim Smith , Communications and Engagement Manager for Wessex Care Records.
