GP Connect is a system which shares patient information with appropriate staff, so you can deliver better care. CQC registered care providers can use GP Connect to access a restricted view of a person's GP record.
Before activating GP Connect for your environment, there are a couple of pre-requisites:
You must be a CQC registered care provider.
You must have reached "standards met" for the current NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) self-assessment. If you haven't yet got DSPT certification, the Digital Care Hub has information and resources to help you get started.
You must have signed the National Data Sharing Arrangement for GP Connect
Signing the NDSA
The National Data Sharing Arrangement for GP Connect sets out data sharing requirements and obligations for the use of GP Connect. It is a signed contract detailing the acceptable use of data by GP Connect users.
Each site/location within your organisation must sign the NDSA. You will not be able to use a "parent" record (such as head office) unless it has been registered as a site.
The GP Connect website lists a number of actions that you should follow as part of signing the NDSA, including but not limited to:
Ensure that transparency notices detailing this arrangement are made available to any potentially affected data subjects.
Engage in appropriate communications strategies to promote awareness of this sharing to your patients.
Ensure that patients are aware of their ability to dissent from this data sharing mechanism.
When signing the NDSA, you will follow the following process:
Select the GP Connect system supplier (CareLineLive).
Enter the ODS code of the site/location that you are registering. If you don't know your ODS codes, you can use the NHS Digital ODS Portal to find them.
State your reason for using GP Connect - please use 'Social Care' as the reason - see screenshot below
Confirm the NDSA agreement.
Submit your signatory details (e.g. Caldicott Guardian, Data Protection Officer, or Senior Information Risk Officer).
Once you've signed the NDSA, please submit your details via the NHS integrations page on your environment.
See GP Connect: Starting activation for instructions on how to submit your details.
Alternatively, you may reach out to [email protected]; when doing this please include the ODS codes of each site/location you wish to activate.
Preparing for activation
So you can get started with GP Connect quickly once activated, we'd suggest you make a start on collecting the following information:
Which of your users will have access to GP Connect
Including who should have restricted access, and professional registration details for those that should have full access.
Ensure that you have collected and recorded each client's NHS Number.
This can be captured in the Identifiers section of a client record.
Ask for consent
In order to access a client's GP Connect record, we'll ask you to explicitly state that you have gained consent from the client.
This could be captured as part of onboarding a client.
Activation
Once you've submitted your details to us, we'll need to communicate with the GP Connect Operations Team in order to register you. This process can take anywhere from 2 - 4 weeks whilst we wait for the appropriate details.
As soon as we receive your registration details, we'll update your environment and you can start using GP Connect.