One can usually hazard a pretty accurate guess as to the line which home educating activists will be taking on many contemporary issues; from ID cards to vaccinations. It made it, I suppose, inevitable that controversy should arise in the home educating community about the introduction of Summary Care Records, knows as SCRs for short. These are a short account of the most important bits in your medical record that a doctor treating you would need to know. Allergies to penicillin, blood group, history of diabetes, that sort of thing. As things stand, if you were to be knocked unconscious in a road accident, there could be a considerable delay in finding who your doctor was and getting access to the sort of information which could save your life. This will speed things up and allow a doctor treating you to find the important stuff out straight away.
There are various things to remember about Summary Care Records. They are completely voluntary. Your doctor will write to you and explain how you can opt out if you do not want to be in the scheme. You can also have notes added to the SCR yourself, if you think that they are misleading. You will be able to view your own SCR online and see what the doctors have put in there and you can also see your child’s SCR, unless she has Gillick Competency, in which case she can view her own record.
Needless to say, there has been a rush of home educating parents who have opted their children out from this scheme, although I cannot quite see why. It seems to me to be very irresponsible and suggest an adherence to dogma at the expense of their child's future welfare. The SCR only contains the bare bones of a person’s medical history; not chapter and verse. There seems to be an anxiety about the information in an SCR being hacked, but so what? I would be happy for my own allergies to become public knowledge!
The real reason that home educators oppose things like the SCR is that there is a visceral distrust of professionals among many such people. Anybody trained to work with children, whether a teacher or doctor, is often viewed with suspicion as the kind of person who would try to prevent home education if at all possible. In other words, this is more paranoia than any rational concern. I am simply counting down and waiting for the explosion from militant home educators to this news:
http://www.cypnow.co.uk/Social_Care/article/1077177/GMC-guidance-urges-doctors-act-child-abuse-concerns/
What do you want to bet that we will be hearing from home educating parents who claim that they will now stop visiting doctors and hospitals entirely when their child is injured or sick?
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I don't think I'll be opting out, but I haven't fully researched all the implications of such a move. On the surface it seems like a good idea.
ReplyDelete'There seems to be an anxiety about the information in an SCR being hacked, but so what? I would be happy for my own allergies to become public knowledge!'
Sure, but would you want your prescriptions for prozac or your short stay in hospital for a boob job to be known about?
Some people have very straightforward medical histories. Others have sex-change operations, genetic testing results, HIV status, depression, cosmetic surgery etc in their medical histories which they may only want their doctor knowing about. Presumably, this is why there's an opt out clause? Otherwise, I would imagine it would have been automatically searchable by hospitals already
'Some people have very straightforward medical histories. Others have sex-change operations, genetic testing results, HIV status, depression, cosmetic surgery etc in their medical histories which they may only want their doctor knowing about.'
ReplyDeleteTrue, but this is only a 'Summary Care Record' It will only contain enough the bare essentials. It will not have every detail of one's medical history.
Simon.
I must confess that when I first heard of the SCR, I was tempted to opt out because of the increasing number of computer records held which contain personal data and the publicized data losses. However a number of medical incidents have made me realize that for us, an efficient SCR can only be a good thing.
ReplyDeleteWe have 3 disabled children, and inevitably they are more affected by ill health than perhaps the average young person of the same age. Last year the youngest was unwell, and we ended up on a Sunday am in a hospital about 10 miles away where the on-call GP service has a base. This was an entirely frustrating experience because this GP has never seen my son before - clearly he is in a wheelchair so is identifiable as disabled, but only I know that his apathy and other symptoms (like not drinking for 48 hours) are caused by an infection rather than his disability. Access to medical records would have made it much more obvious; a reverse experience was when the same son suffered a head injury which needed glueing and the doctor was concerned that his bizarre behaviour was caused by some serious trauma which may need a CT scan, but which we know is down to the damage his brain suffered before birth!
Hopefully for those of us in or position, the SCR will be a step forward.
'True, but this is only a 'Summary Care Record' It will only contain enough the bare essentials. It will not have every detail of one's medical history.
ReplyDeleteSimon.'
Okay, so who will get to decide what 'the essentials' are? Will a patient be able to exclude certain information if they wish?
The laptops left on trains thing is a big issue too, Julie. I recently got a letter from Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital informing us that all my daughter's hospital records were on a disk that was in a car that got stolen, but that I shouldn't worry about it.
"The laptops left on trains thing is a big issue too, Julie. I recently got a letter from Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital informing us that all my daughter's hospital records were on a disk that was in a car that got stolen, but that I shouldn't worry about it"
ReplyDeleteI know - frustrating and unforgiveable, - but will the SCR make matters worse or better? I am never very clear as to why anyone needs the info on disc anyway- you would think that they could simply access the data online in the first place and then there would be less info on memory sticks, disc and so on to be mislaid or stolen, but perhaps I am not IT savvy enough to really understand why such info is in someone's car!
True, maybe if it's all online, it won't get physically lost. But teenaged boys with aspergers do tend to be rather good at hacking in to some very high profile, and presumably high security, sites these days.
ReplyDeleteI was tempted to opt out but decided not to in the end. Our family have various medical needs, in particular my dd has diabetes and I would hate if her information was not available to someone and as a result something serious happened.
ReplyDelete'True, maybe if it's all online, it won't get physically lost. But teenaged boys with aspergers do tend to be rather good at hacking in to some very high profile, and presumably high security, sites these days.'
ReplyDeleteThis is true, but while I might not want my neighbours to know every detail of my medical history, it probably wouldn't matter of some random kid with Aspergers' read it!
Simon.
'This is true, but while I might not want my neighbours to know every detail of my medical history, it probably wouldn't matter of some random kid with Aspergers' read it!
ReplyDeleteSimon.'
It would depend what he did with it, wouldn't it?
"The real reason that home educators oppose things like the SCR is that there is a visceral distrust of professionals among many such people."
ReplyDeleteYet the General Practitioner Committee is against this database, believing that the clinical benefits are insufficient to justify it, particularly at a time when patients are being denied proven clinical services on the grounds of expense. So if doctors think the money could be better spent from the patient's point of view, one is left wondering who benefits from the system? I wonder whose friend got the IT contract...
For those that are considering allowing the upload of data (and I count myself one of these people for similar reasons mentioned above), please make sure that you check what's been uploaded to ensure errors have not been made.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article7067762.ece
You will be able to read your records on this web site, https://www.healthspace.nhs.uk/
This looks to be an interesting site for further information (though I've only just started reading):
http://www.neilb.demon.co.uk/
' please make sure that you check what's been uploaded to ensure errors have not been made'
ReplyDeleteIndeed yes, sound advice.
Simon.