Innovative digital tool improves care and safety for local care home residents

Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Health and Care Partnership is supporting local care providers to take advantage of digital tools and systems like Proxy Access so they can provide the best care for their residents. The Digitising Social Care programme is funding a number of projects that either enable digital records, prevent falls, or provide remote monitoring.

Proxy Access is an online service to improve how care providers share medical information with their residents’ GP practices. Nominated staff can securely order medications and access accurate information in GP records for residents in their care at any time of the day or night.

So far, 80 care homes across Bedfordshire, Luton, and Milton Keynes are using Proxy Access to order their medications more safely and quickly – and it’s improved their working relationships with GP practices too.

Laura Warner, Senior Care Coordinator at the De Parys Group, Bedford said: “It’s helped to cut down the time that we’re having to contact each other, because you can see what you’ve ordered and when it has been dispensed.”

Dr Harsh Kak, GP Partner at the De Parys Group, Bedford said: “If there are any issues we are made aware, but on the whole our care coordinators tell us it’s been a great experience so far for them, and we’ve had very good feedback from the people directly involved. I do feel it makes a lot of things more seamless and trouble-free – especially reducing the time the GP has to get involved in day-to-day issues.”

Kirsten Frost, Practice Manager and Pharmacy Technician at London Road Surgery said: “It opens the conversation about your ordering processes – things that you could do better, things the care home could do better… So just by having that conversation, it naturally helps to improve things. “

“Once it’s up and running it’s definitely worth it… We couldn’t imagine managing our care home medications and other aspects of a care home patient’s care without Proxy Access.”

For more information about Proxy Access and Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Health and Care Partnership’s Digitising Social Care programme, visit www.blmkhealthandcarepartnership.org/digitising-social-care-disc-programme and select ‘ Digital records’.

Dr Kak, Laura and Kirsten are also featured in this video about Proxy Access.