The BMA has scrapped its plans for a legal challenge against NHS England’s (NHSE) imposed requirement for GP practices to offer automatic access to patient records.
The BMA’s GP Committee for England (GPCE) had been preparing a legal challenge to delay the 31 October deadline for practices offering automatic access to prospective patient records via the NHS App.
But in an update to members following last week’s GPCE meeting, members were informed that the BMA will not pursue the challenge for financial and legal reasons.
Deputy chair Dr Richard Van Mellaerts said that ‘resourcing issues and the legal merits of the case not meeting the threshold for success’ meant that the GPCE had been ‘unable to progress this’.
The committee heard from members who expressed concern about the implications for patient safety of vulnerable patients having full record access and of the projected workload required of GPs in trying to implement the programme.
The GPCE reiterated ‘grave concerns’ regarding the safety implications of this imposed contractual requirement.
Dr Van Mellaerts added: ‘GPCE will thus raise these concerns and issues with NHSE again ahead of the planned 31 October go-live date with a view to finding a way to safely implement prospective record access with the support of the profession.’
The October rollout date was set following several delays over the past year, fuelled by patient safety concerns.
A version of this story first appeared on our sister publication Pulse.
