The problems with the SCR
I'm a GP - so this is a GP take on the SCR.
1. it started like the Scottish ECR (Emergency Care Record) as an upload of medication, allergies and adverse reactions.
The medication is likely to be accurate and complete - and allergies/adverse reactions useful even if inaccurate or incomplete.
2. The SCR will then be "enriched" (without further notice or public or patient consultation) by information from, initially, the GP record then other sources including hospital discharges, lab results and other unspecified sources.
3. The data quality in GP records is very variable - making problems for the Urgent Care groups using it for patient care: *is* this record both accurate and with no significant omissions?
4. There has already been significant expansion in the scope and purpose of the SCR: it now looks as though there may be plans to make it a nationally available Detailed Care Record - i.e. the one and only medical record - with no clarity as to how this would be managed: like a SSEPR with *no* clinical or information governance at all!
My conclusions.
If you have multiple medication and complex morbidity, advantages probably out-weigh risks (assuming, of course, that the local urgent care services have the capacity to access it!)
If not, lot of risk of holding misleading or incomplete information and no apparent advantage: why not opt-out now and opt-in at a later date if it proves useful?
NB
I do not trust the Secretary of State for Health as Data Controller for the SCR: untrained and unqualified.
and
I do not agree that the patient has no right to opt-out of having an SCR or that this is a concession at the discretion of the NHS.
(check the SCR website FAQ for clinicians)