GP2GP being stabilised then replaced

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth 

GP2GP is being stabilised and will either be replaced in the next few years or no longer required because health information will be available through shared digital health records, Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora says.

GP2GP enables patient records to be electronically transferred from one practice management system (PMS) to another.

Primary care leaders have expressed concerns about ongoing issues with this vital service, saying these cause delays in care and introduce clinical risk. 

The latest GPNZ data and digital update says general practice is spending an increasing amount of time and resource managing and checking GP2GP transfers and fixing errors.

Interim chief information technology officer Darren Douglass says Health NZ is investing in stabilising the service, “with an operating model that ensures these stabilisation efforts last until another solution for transferring health records is in place.

“GP2GP will either be replaced in the next few years or no longer required because health information will be available through shared digital health records,” Douglass says in an update shared with primary care.

The GPNZ update says the Health NZ GP2GP team has been working closely with GPNZ and general practice managers to scope stabilisation requirements, as well as talking with HealthLink and PMS suppliers.

“The main issues identified relate to the patient file transfer size limit of 20MB, inconsistencies in data mapping, and difficulty identifying diagnostic results,” Douglass says.

“By July we are aiming to have updated GP2GP source code to PMS suppliers to deploy in their PMSs to support the safe and efficient transfer of patient records. By then, HealthLink will be supporting the transfer of files up to 50MB in size.

“We will also test the GP2GP patient file transfer process between PMS applications once the consistent version is in place, to ensure transfers are error free.”

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) president Luke Bradford says GP2GP is a vital service. 

“The GP record is the most complete health record for a patient in New Zealand and so its complete, secure and error free transfer from one practice to another is essential and does carry risk,” he says. 

“The College has for some time been concerned that HNZ has not grasped the significance of this application and has not prioritised solutions to the problems between PMS or led in driving the industry to address them. 

“As it is, records often arrive corrupted, or with missing or duplicated data. We remain clear that addressing this is important for clinical safety.”

The GPNZ update says a workshop set up in early May will bring together data and digital leads with clinical and practice expertise to scope additional improvements that could be delivered before the end of June.

Douglass says enhancing and stabilising GP2GP will mean reduced clinical risk from missing, incorrect or incomplete patient data, as well as reduced admin time for general practices as staff will no longer have to spend time checking file transfers and correcting errors.

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