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Spine 2 special edition - June 2014

Are you ready for Spine 2?

Between Friday 25th July and early Monday 28th July, NHS Spine Core services and applications will be replaced and upgraded as part of the transition to Spine 2.

What is the Spine?

The Spine is a collection of national applications, services and directories that support the NHS in the exchange of information across national and local NHS systems. It connects clinicians, patients and local service providers throughout England to essential national services, including Summary Care Record (SCR), Choose & Book (CAB), Electronic Prescription Service (EPS), GP2GP, Secondary Uses Service (SUS) and NHS Number.

The Spine is also the repository of Summary Care Records (SCRs) and manages access to SCRs, via the provision of services such as Role Based Access Control. The Summary Care Record application (SCRa) and Alert Viewer are also part of the Spine.

Spine 2 and SCR

Spine 2 will replace the current Spine, using new technology that is more flexible to accommodate future changes in service functionality.

Key points for SCR users to note are:

• Spine 2 will replicate the majority of Spine services and applications, so users will notice little or no difference when sending and viewing Summary Care Records. However the few changes that have been made to the applications have been very well received by users who have tested them.

• There have also been some changes to the supported technical environments for these applications. Organisations that currently use SCRa and the Alert Viewer may want to check that their technical environment is supported after the transition to Spine 2 e.g. internet browser and local operating system. Details of the Spine 2 supported technical environments can be found on the Spine website.

What are the changes to Summary Care Record application?

The Summary Care Record application (SCRa) is a nationally available web based system that provides access to Summary Care Records. Following the transition to Spine 2, an updated version of the Summary Care Record application will be provided. 

Whilst the majority of functionality will be the same, there are a number of enhancements to make access to Summary Care Records quicker and simpler.

• After searching for a patient, users will be informed whether an SCR exists or not. Previously there was no indication until the final step in the process.

• Based on feedback, users will need to go through fewer screens to access the SCR.

Full details of the changes to the Summary Care Record application can be found on the HSCIC website. However, users should need minimal or no training in order to use the new SCRa to access patient Summary Care Records.
 

What are the changes for the Alert Viewer?

When users access an SCR without the patient’s permission or when they claim a ‘legitimate relationship’ with the patient, SCRa and other systems will generate at electronic privacy alert. These alerts are managed by Privacy Officers using a Spine application called the Alert Viewer.

The current Alert Viewer will be replaced by a new version with some minor changes:

• To make the process easier for Privacy Officers, the process to download the electronic extract of Alerts has been improved.

• There have been some changes to the names of the electronic alerts generated when a user accesses a SCR without the patient’s permission.

Full detail of the changes to Alert Viewer can be found on the HSCIC website.
 

Impact on GP practices during transition (25-28th July 2014)

In order to minimise the impact of the transition for users, services will move to the new infrastructure in phases over the course of the weekend of 25-28 July 2014.  Further details of the transition are available on the Spine 2 webpages.
 

In order to facilitate the transition to Spine 2, the SCR programme has advised GP system suppliers to:

• Avoid or reduce the number of SCR initial uploads from Monday 14 July.

• Not commence any further SCR initial uploads from Monday 21 July.   Note: This is to avoid any on-going SCR activity on Spine at the point of transition to Spine 2.

• Gradually re-introduce SCR initial uploads against Spine 2 from Wednesday 30 July.

Please note: If you have already scheduled your SCR initial upload on a date that is affected by this, and therefore needs to be rescheduled, you will be contacted by your system supplier or the Summary Care Record programme.

Service Management arrangements

SCR users should continue to log incidents or issues to the local helpdesks that they currently use during and after transition to Spine 2. These helpdesks will be able to either immediately resolve your issue or raise it directly with the relevant system supplier and advise users of progress through to resolution.

Information about any ongoing or previous service problems can be found on the HSCIC website.
 

Further Information

If you require any further information about the Spine 2 Core Transition visit the Spine 2 webpages or email us: spine2@hscic.gov.uk.