Working in a more integrated way will have a greater impact on health, wellbeing and the quality of care we deliver. Having Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) will provide more joined up care for residents which will be achieved by having a variety of partners with different expertise working together. Find out more in the video or click here to download our explainer leaflet.
Information Sharing and Neighbourhood Health
Neighbourhood Health responds to long-standing feedback from patients who receive care across different services and organisations. Many people have told us that their care can feel fragmented, duplicative, or poorly coordinated, especially when services don’t appear to be joined up.
To provide safe, effective, and high quality care, it’s essential that healthcare professionals can share relevant information. This includes, for example, through referral and discharge letters so that everyone involved in a patient’s care has the information they need to make informed decisions. This sharing is typically discussed with the patient by their GP or healthcare professional at the point of referral.
We understand that patients rightly expect their personal information to be kept secure and confidential. The approach to information sharing always takes this into account:
- Information is only shared with professionals directly involved in a patient’s care and only where it is necessary for that care to be delivered safely and effectively.
- A robust legal and ethical framework governs how patient information is used and sets clear standards about who can access records, for what purpose, and when.
- All systems used for sharing have audit functions built in, allowing us to monitor and track exactly which professionals have accessed a patient’s records and when.
Across London, shared protocols and information governance frameworks are in place that support secure record sharing between NHS services and some local authority teams. These frameworks ensure that up-to-date information is available to the right people at the right time, so that care is better joined up and more responsive to patient needs.
If you have concerns about how your information is shared, you can speak to your GP practice, who can explain how this works and what your rights are.