Pharmacy professionals should record details of the reason for accessing the patient’s SCR on every occasion. It is good practice to keep records of consent and consultations

• Every time a pharmacy professional accesses a SCR, they will be asked to confirm that they have a legitimate relationship with the patient
• Patients can request to see who has accessed their SCR at any time
• Such records will not only help show patients why the SCR was accessed but also provide an audit trail in the event that the pharmacy is investigated with regards to suspected inappropriate access to SCRs and/or any patient complaints.

Restrictions on accessing the SCR

• The SCR can only be accessed by pharmacy professionals (pharmacists and pharmacy technicians) if there is a clinical need to do so
• The SCR can only be accessed if the pharmacist/pharmacy technician has a legitimate relationship with the patient at that point in time (i.e. they have good reason to view it based on clinical need)
• The SCR can only be accessed if consent has been obtained prior to each viewing (unless access is required in an emergency situation).

N.B. While it should be rare for anyone to need emergency access to the SCR in a community pharmacy, an example scenario might be a patient who is referred to the pharmacy from NHS 111, but the patient cannot be immediately contacted by the pharmacy professional. To risk assess the consequences of not being able to contact the patient and if it is deemed to be in the patient’s best interest, the SCR can be viewed. This could help determine next steps the pharmacy professional may need to consider; for example, referring to another healthcare provider or raising an alarm.