Integrated record keeping as an essential aspect of a primary care led health service

Three separate policy themes have been identified as important for the future development of effective health care in the United Kingdom. These are a focus on the extended primary care team as the prime means of healthcare delivery, 1-3 improved keeping of patients' records and communication between professionals, 4 and greater recognition of consumers' wishes for good quality, well coordinated care. 5 However, these three strands are generally being addressed separately, and inherited traditions of professional practice reinforce incompatibilities between them, although some official publications have recognised the need for innovation and greater flexibility. ood records are at the heart of professional practice. Moreover, good healthcare delivery, best use of healthcare resources, and delivery of a cohesive service that satisfies an increasingly demanding population can be achieved only with good communications and a shared clinical perception of a patient's problems and needs-seamless care is difficult to achieve without seamless information. Thus a new generation of integrated records is required to support the expanding primary care team.