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Advanced Healthspace Accounts

Dr Neil Bhatia made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Health

The request was successful.

From: Dr Neil Bhatia

29 May 2009

Dear DoH/CfH

I would like to make some requests under the FOI Act.

For the purposes of the Act, the date of your receipt of this
request will be 29th May.

Regarding Advanced HealthSpace Accounts (the ones where patients
can view their Summary Care Record online):

• Please could you confirm the total number of patients who have
successfully registered for an Advanced HealthSpace account (and
who by definition have a SCR)

• Of those, please could you confirm the total number of patients
who have actually accessed their SCR via their Advanced HealthSpace
account at least once.

as of 29th May.

(Clearly this will apply only to those patients within the Bury,
Bradford, Bolton, Dorset, South Birmingham and South West Essex PCT
areas).

As per Section 4a of Part 1 of the FOI Act
(
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukp...
) I would like the information in question held at the time when my
request is received (draft or otherwise), except that account may
be taken of any amendment or deletion made between now and the
latest time by which the information is to be communicated to me,
being an amendment or deletion that would have been made regardless
of the receipt of my request.

I would be grateful if you would be kind enough to send me the
requested information promptly and in any event not later than the
twentieth working day following the date of receipt of my request -
that is by then end of the working day of 26th June.

If my request is denied in whole or in part, or specific items
within the responses are withheld from disclosure, then you must
justify all deletions by reference to specific exemptions of the
act, as per Section 17 of the Act
(
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukp...
). Where you rely on a qualified exemption to withhold disclosure,
you are obliged to consider the public interest in your decision
and the refusal notice must explain not only which exemption
applies and why, but also the public interest arguments addressed
in reaching the decision.

I wish to receive the information by email; I believe such a
request would be reasonable in these circumstances. As per Section
11 of Part 1 of the FOI Act (
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukp...
) I would be grateful if you would "so far as reasonably
practicable give effect to that preference"; if you determine that
it is not reasonably practicable to comply with this preference
then you are required by law to notify me of the reasons for your
determination.

The “return address” (to which the information that I have
requested be should be sent ) is the email address that this
particular request originates from (i.e. ending in
'@whatdotheyknow.com').

I would be grateful if you would kindly acknowledge receipt of this
request as recommended by the ICO (“It would be good practice to
acknowledge receipt of requests and to refer to the 20 working day
time limit, so that applicants know their request is being dealt
with”).

Thank you once again.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Neil Bhatia

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Department of Health

1 June 2009

Thank you for your enquiry.

We aim to respond within 20 working days.
If there is likely to be any delay we will contact you to let you know.

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Department of Health

2 June 2009

Our ref: DE00000417602
2 June 2009

Dear Dr Bhatia
Thank you for your email of 29 May asking, under the Freedom of
Information Act, for information about HealthSpace accounts. The answers
to the questions you have asked are as follows :
Q1. Please could you confirm the total number of patients who have
successfully registered for an Advanced HealthSpace account (and who by
definition have a SCR)
The total number of fully activated HealthSpace Advanced Accounts as of 26
May 2009 stands at 812.
Notes :
1. 26 May, 2009 is the most recent date for which this information is
available;
2. It is NOT mandatory to have a SCR to register for a HealthSpace
Advanced Account.
Q2. Of those, please could you confirm the total number of patients who
have actually accessed their SCR via their Advanced HealthSpace account at
least once
The number of people with fully activated HealthSpace accounts who have
accessed their SCR at least once as of 1 June, 2009 is 437.
I hope that this is helpful. If you are dissatisfied with the handling of
your request, you have the right to ask for an internal review. Internal
review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of
receipt of the response to your original letter and should be addressed
to:

Head of the Freedom of Information Team
Department of Health
Room 317
Richmond House
79 Whitehall,
London
SW1A 2NS

Email: [1][email address]
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint, you may apply
directly to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for a decision.
Generally, the ICO cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted the
complaints procedure provided by the Department. The ICO can be contacted
at:
Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Yours sincerely,

Colin McDonald
FOI Manager
Department of Health

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References

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Dr Neil Bhatia left an annotation ( 2 June 2009)

From www.healthspace.nhs.uk :

“A HealthSpace Basic Account allows you to store and keep track of your health information such as your blood pressure, blood sugar levels, weight and peak flow readings.”

“You can only open an Advanced Account when your local NHS is taking part in the NHS Care Records Service.”

Benefits of a HealthSpace Advanced Account

•You will be able to view your Summary Care Record, which contains your demographic information (such as your name, address and NHS number) and a summary of your important health information (current medications, allergies and bad reactions to medication)
•You can check that your Summary Care Record is accurate and up-to-date.
________________________________________

It seems that whilst you don’t need a SCR to register for an Advanced Account (your local PCT must be piloting the SCR though), there seems no point in having one unless you have a SCR.
________________________________________

Information about the NHS Database/Summary Care Record can be found on my site:

www.nhsdatabase.info

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