DCCR January briefing update 2023

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A new system that aims to transform the way information is shared among health and care organisations has been launched in Devon and Cornwall.

The Devon and Cornwall Care Record (DCCR) enables authorised health and care staff to see details held by a wide range of providers across Devon, Cornwall and the Isle of Scilly in a single record. It gives professionals a more complete view of a patient’s history and is part of a national programme.

New Capability

Users may have noticed that a new ‘Dashboard Card’ has appeared in the patient summary screen titled Alerts and Hazards. This currently carries no content, but that will change in the next few weeks.

We have been working with Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust (RCHT) to transfer alert and hazard information into the DCCR. This will initially be focused on anaesthesia and ventilation information, specifically:

• History of anaesthesia problem
• Difficult tracheal intubation (Grade 3)
• Difficult tracheal intubation (Grade 4)
• Non-invasive ventilation

This means that anaesthesia and ventilation information, which is currently only available to system users in the RCHT, will now be available to all DCCR users in Cornwall and Devon.

The intention is to widen the scope of Alerts, with RCHT also showing where the patient is a Military Veteran to help support the NHS commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant. Soon, there will also be a focus on improving accessibility information for patients in Cornwall.

We will be engaging with other stakeholder organisations to widen the scope of the information available in relation to Alerts and Hazards. However, while we build up the alerts information the absence of an alert does not mean that the patient does not have an alert recorded on a system somewhere. If in doubt, please check your local system for alert information.

More organisations join

Following the merger of the former Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trust and Northern Devon Healthcare Trust, and the migration of North Devon District Hospital to EPIC, the new organisation (Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust) has started engaging with the DCCR to surface admission, discharge and transfer information, as well as outpatient attendances and appointments. This is due to go live in March 2023.

We have also begun working to surface the same information from Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust.
We will shortly be publishing information from the Devon Hospices. This will appear in the Clinical Document Viewer.

GP sign-up

The last enrolment window for GP practices to sign up to the DCCR free of charge has now passed. 100% of practices in Cornwall and 81% in Devon have signed up, including at least one practice from each Primary Care Network.
This means that the majority of the population in Devon and Cornwall now have their GP records available to staff in secondary care, and other primary care services that are using the DCCR. Staff within those practices have access to secondary care information from both acute and mental health services.
We would like to extend a massive thank you to all the practices that have agreed to participate in the programme and realise that this has been against the backdrop of unprecedented demand on services.
We are confident that as the capability of the system increases over the coming months that there will be significant benefit to health and care practitioners and patients.

Find out more about the DCCR

The programme team has also produced a range of resources to help staff and patients find out more about the DCCR. These include a:

• Quick guide to the DCCR – basic details about the programme.
• Patient communication toolkit – a suite of marketing materials to help organisations inform their patients and service users about the DCCR and its benefits.
• Website – information about the DCCR for patients and health and care staff. The site can be found at https://devonandcornwallcarerecord.nhs.uk/
• Training website – supports staff of participating organisations in the use of the DCCR platform. The site includes user guides and short videos.

Spread the word and get in touch

Please forward this email to any colleagues who might be interested in knowing more about the Devon and Cornwall Care Record. And if you have any questions about the programme or would like to find out more, email the team on d-icb.devonandcornwallcarerecord@nhs.net