‘GPs take the management of patient records very seriously’ says College Chair

College Chair Kamila Hawthorne featured in today’s Guardian with comment responding to a report from Healthwatch on inaccuracies in patient medical records.

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Reliable patient records are key to ensuring patients receive the care and treatments they need. As such, GPs take the management of their patient records very seriously and will be deeply concerned by this report.

“There may be many reasons for administrative errors occurring but inadequate IT infrastructure, intense workload and workforce pressures in general practice, high levels of unnecessary bureaucracy, and poor communication between different parts of the health service could all contribute to mistakes being made. GPs and our teams work hard to ensure records are secure and accurate and care is joined up, but if GPs and their teams are overworked and our basic IT systems are slow, inefficient and can’t communicate with one another effectively, then issues such as this are inadvertently and unfortunately going to happen.

“The forthcoming new 10-year Health Plan must be used as an opportunity to resolve this, allocating a greater portion of the NHS budget to primary care and also providing additional ringfenced funding - of at least £2 billion - to address the substantial shortcomings in both our physical and digital infrastructure.”

Further information

RCGP press office: 0203 188 7659
press@rcgp.org.uk

Notes to editors

The Royal College of General Practitioners is a network of more than 54,000 family doctors working to improve care for patients. We work to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general medical practice and act as the voice of GPs on education, training, research and clinical standards.