Table 4.

Misconceptions about the SCR and HealthSpace among service users

	Misconception	Comment
1	Doctors and nurses already have the ability to access a patient’s full medical record wherever they are in the NHS	This facility does not exist except on a limited local basis in some areas
2	The SCR and HealthSpace will contain detailed medical information that will (for example) enable a person to clarify what the GP said in the last consultation or why a particular test was ordered	The SCR will focus mainly on current medication, allergies, and adverse reactions. As currently planned, it will contain only brief medical details
3	If an SCR is created, it will contain an accurate and complete account of current illness and will always be accessible to healthcare staff, making lost records or missing data a thing of the past	The SCR is unlikely to be universally accessible because of technical and operational hurdles. Its future accuracy and completeness are unknown
4	“Opting out” of the SCR means that a person will no longer be registered on the personal demographic service (PDS or “the Spine”). Hence, opting out will protect against identity fraud	All NHS patients will be registered on the PDS. Identity fraud (while highly unlikely) is therefore a theoretical possibility even for patients who have opted out of the SCR
5	The SCR will be cross-linked to the social security system, making it possible for the government to check up on sickness and incapacity benefit claims	No such plans have been announced
6	The SCR will enable people to remain registered with a GP even when they move out of the area	A patient who moves out of area will still be expected to register with a new GP
7	An advanced HealthSpace account will allow a patient access to their detailed medical record	HealthSpace allows access only to the SCR, not the detailed medical record
8	The SCR will contain details of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and/or a person’s sexual orientation	Information on sexual orientation is not part of the minimum dataset; STIs treated at specialist clinics will not be on the GP record, and STIs treated by the GP would not normally be part of the minimum dataset
9	The SCR will improve access to GPs for vulnerable groups because proof of identity and current address will no longer be needed to register	The SCR will not change the requirements for registering with a GP
10	The SCR will allow the patient to legitimise an account of illness (for example, that they were genuinely sick on a particular day in the past)	The SCR is unlikely to contain sufficient detail to adjudicate in contested accounts of illness
11	The SCR could be easily hacked into	Extensive technical security measures and access controls are in place, making hacking unlikely though not impossible
12	Patients will be able to make corrections to their medical record directly via HealthSpace	As currently planned, corrections will be possible only indirectly