By Jainil Patel, Head of Professional Services, Deputy Superintendent and Lead Prescriber at Hollowood Chemists

As community pharmacists, we’re often the first point of contact for patients seeking advice, treatment, or reassurance. But how often do we find ourselves relying solely on what the patient tells us about their medical history? Incomplete information can lead to delays, risks, or missed opportunities to deliver the best care.

That’s where the GM Care Record (GMCR) has transformed our practice at Hollowood Chemists.

Real-time access, real-world impact

The GMCR gives us real-time access to comprehensive patient records, including:

• Allergies and medication history
• Lab results and discharge summaries
• Acute and chronic medication details
• Referrals and non-treatment notes

This isn’t just helpful, it’s essential. I’ve had cases where patients couldn’t recall their allergies, and the GMCR flagged a penicillin allergy that could have potentially led to serious harm. It’s also helped me tailor antibiotic prescribing based on past effectiveness, improving both patient safety and monitoring antibiotic resistance.

Empowering independent prescribers

With the next cohort of pharmacy professionals qualifying as independent prescribers, access to the GMCR is becoming a necessity. Prescribing safely and effectively requires full visibility of a patient’s medical journey. The GMCR enables that.

Reducing GP dependency

Before GMCR, we’d often need to contact GPs for information. Now, we can access what we need directly, saving time for everyone and streamlining care. It’s baffling that not all pharmacists have access yet. Access to full patient information should be standard across our sector.

Training and usability

Getting started with the GMCR was straightforward. While there is online training available, I found it intuitive to navigate. You can explore the tabs and quickly learn where to find the information you need. That said, I’d love to see improvements like tabbed browsing and eventually write access to contribute to the record as it is read-only right now.

Find out more about the GMCR’s new look launching later this year

Challenges and opportunities

The main limitation? Not all services feed into the GMCR yet. Some community data feeds are a notable gap, but I’m aware work is going on to switch on and optimise data feeds from more services which will make the GMCR even more powerful.

The future of Community Pharmacy

With better access to shared care records, community pharmacy can evolve into a more autonomous, data-informed sector. We’ll be able to:

• Deliver safer, more personalised care
• Reduce pressure on GPs and other services
• Take on greater prescribing responsibilities with confidence

It’s time we embraced the GM Care Record across all community pharmacies. The future of integrated, patient-centred care depends on it.