About
The South Yorkshire Shared Care Record (SYSCR) programme is advancing the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YHCR) in the region.
The YHCR is bringing together people’s health and care records across the NHS and local authorities, joining up information based on the individual rather than one organisation.
It means information recorded about someone’s health and care such as illnesses, treatments and hospital admissions can be accessed by different people who are directly involved in their care. Hospitals, GPs and other health and care workers have always tended to have separate records - the YHCR is allowing the data from these to be seen in one place.
A total of 1.4 million people’s records in South Yorkshire are now accessible on the YHCR to professionals directly involved in their care.
Local NHS organisations and local authorities in the four areas of South Yorkshire are working towards providing their data into the YHCR. Rollout of the shared care record is now progressing in primary care, community care, hospitals, mental health care and social care settings across the Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield areas.
When fully implemented, the YHCR will result in access to more information, faster. This will, in turn, lead to safer, more coordinated services and improved, personalised care.
Leaders in sharing records
Two areas in South Yorkshire have previously developed localised systems for better sharing records.
These are:
- Integrated Doncaster Care Record
- Rotherham Health Record
Benefits of sharing records
Individuals benefit from:
- Safer, more coordinated services
- Reduction in time by avoiding the need to repeat medical or social care history
- Fewer repeats of tests, appointments and admissions
- Preferences and needs observed
- Improved experience and continuity of care
- Improved confidence in services.
Health and care professionals benefit from:
- Less time spent seeking information
- The delivery of safer, more personalised care
- The ability to work more collaboratively across organisational boundaries
- Improved transfer across services, including discharge planning
- Improved staff satisfaction.
Frequently asked questions for members of the public
At the moment, every health and social care organisation that you use has a different set of patient or service user records for you. These records may duplicate information or one record might hold information about your treatment, care and support that another one does not. To provide the best care to you as a patient or service user, it is essential that health and social care professionals have access to the most up-to-date information.
A shared care record pulls key information from different health and social care records and places it in one combined view. This enables health and social care professionals to find all the key information for your care in one place.
A shared care record has access to certain information about an individual, for example:
- Address and telephone number
- Medication
- Appointments
- Allergies
- Test results
- Referrals, clinical letters and discharge information.
Yes. The South Yorkshire Shared Care Record (SYSCR) programme is overseeing progress in developing this. There are actually three shared care records in South Yorkshire (as at January 2025) although in time we expect to see a standardised system in place. We have been pioneers in this area in setting up shared care records, so both Doncaster and Rotherham have their own systems. In addition, we have the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YHCR) which covers the whole of South Yorkshire and the wider Yorkshire and Humber area.
Your shared care record does not share everything from your GP record. These include information relating to:
- IVF treatment
- HIV and AIDS
- Sexually transmitted infections
- Gender reassignment
- Termination of pregnancy
Please note: this list may be subject to change to reflect changes to national guidance on the sharing of sensitive information.
Having a shared care record means:
- Coordinated and safer care
- Clear decisions about your care
- No need to repeat your details to different professionals
- Your care record is always available to those involved in your care
Understanding your situation better.
There are many partner organisations in the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme.
The NHS organisations are:
- Primary care across South Yorkshire
- South West Yorkshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust
- Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust
- Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust
- Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
- Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust
The local authorities are:
- Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
- City of Doncaster Council
- Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
- Sheffield City Council.
Only health and social care staff directly dealing with your care can see your record. These are people that could include your:
- GP
- Social worker
- Mental health practitioner
- Safeguarding officer
- Consultant
- Occupational therapist
- Physiotherapist
- Radiologist
- Paramedic
Individual organisations currently keep a record about you. For example, everyone who is registered at a GP surgery will have a record kept at that practice. If you attend a hospital, they will create their own record about you and the same will happen for adult and children’s services within local authorities. Your shared care record brings all these electronic records together in one place for a fuller picture about your health and wellbeing.
Shared care records pull together information on a person from several sources, such as the GP practice, hospitals and social care, so they contain extra information compared to the summary care record.
By law, everyone working in, or for, the NHS and adult and children’s social care must respect your privacy and keep your information safe. Your shared care record is held on a secure computer system. Data protection is taken very seriously. We will ensure that your record is only viewed by staff who need to see it to support your care.
Data quality is something we all take very seriously and it is very important that the information in the records is correct. As your shared care record is only bringing together the existing information in your health and care records, it is essential to contact directly the team/organisation which originally inputted the information to ensure accuracy.
Please do not contact the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme team for this – you must contact the respective NHS team/organisation or local authority team.
Your medical and care records will still be confidential. They will only be looked at by people who are directly involved in your care. Your information is not shared with anyone who does not need it to provide treatment, care and support to you. Your details will be kept safe and will not be made public, passed on to a third party who is not directly involved in your care, used for advertising or sold.
Yes. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) you can request access to all information that organisations hold about you, including copies of paper, electronic and combined health records. If you wish to see the health or care information held about you, please contact the organisation providing your care.
No. You will automatically be included in the shared care record. Locally and nationally, this is the approach being taken. You do not have to let anyone know or fill in any forms, it’s all done for you.
No. Your consent is not required to share your information where it is for your health and care. If you do not want your health and care information to be shared, you can object.
Your health and social care professional can talk to you about how your information is shared and tell you how you can object if you want to. Objecting will not affect your treatment, but a shared care record will generally make information sharing quicker, easier and more complete, which helps to get you the right treatment at the right time, especially in an emergency situation.
If you want to know how to object, you can email the programme team at syicb.scr@nhs.net
More details about your information rights can be found at the website: https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/
Please contact the care provider alleged of improper use directly to register a complaint.
Contact
To contact the South Yorkshire Shared Care Record programme team, please email: