No 'imminent changes' are being made to prevent GP practices from turning off the functionality to allow pharmacies to send structured updates to patient records, NHS England (NHSE)'s director of primary care has said.

But it would be 'odd' for any GP to choose to turn this service off, she said.

In a letter sent to GPs yesterday, Dr Amanda Doyle also reassured GPs that the functionality was 'clinically safe'. And she said it had already received 'positive feedback' from general practices.

GPs can still switch off Update Record 'if they choose to'

IT providers have recently rolled out GP Connect Update Record to ‘most pharmacies’. It allows pharmacists to send ‘structured’ updates to GP practices about Pharmacy First consultations. GP practices can then easily add this information to the patient record with 'one click'.

But at the end of last week, the British Medical Association (BMA) instructed GPs to turn off the update.

The switch-off was first proposed as part of GP industrial action to potentially commence on 1 August. But on Friday, the BMA instructed practices to turn it off immediately. This followed GP providers reporting that NHSE had asked them to disable the opt-out function.

But in a statement released yesterday, Dr Doyle said that it was ‘completely inaccurate’ to suggest that 'any imminent changes' were being made 'to stop GPs switching off the GP Connect functionality if they choose to'.

She added: ‘Consultation outcomes from Pharmacy First, including any medicines issued, can now arrive directly into a practice workflow, for checking and filing with one click, which increases clinical safety and reduces the administrative burden.

‘The NHS introduced this functionality to make GPs working lives easier and improve patient outcomes – so it is odd that any GP would choose to turn this service off and revert to manually inputting data from emails, increasing their workload and taking up more time.’

And without Update Record, pharmacies would have to revert to using old systems, community pharmacy representatives warned.

'No plan' to extend functionality beyond pharmacy services

Dr Doyle wrote to GPs and practice managers yesterday to say that ‘GP IT suppliers are not removing the opt-out button’. Every practice ‘has a choice of how to configure their GP IT system’, she added.

And she said that there was 'no plan currently to extend this functionality beyond Pharmacy First, Blood Pressure or Contraception Service consultation messages'.

'This enhancement is just one of a range of clinically safe improvements NHS England is making with suppliers, to better help practices manage demand and capacity and continue to provide high quality care,' she added.

The BMA highlighted potential 'unintended consequences' about how GP Connect might be used in the future. One BMA representative warned it could be ‘the biggest workload dump imaginable’ for GPs.

A version of this story was first reported by our sister publication Pulse.