NHS Digital has published the Summary Care Record (SCR) usage calculator tool to assist community pharmacy contractors in monitoring and increasing their SCR usage.

The Quality Payments scheme, which assesses each eligible pharmacy against quality criteria and awards points for each one fulfilled will be a key component in overcoming the pharmacy cuts.

Use of the Summary Care Record accounts for 10% of Quality Payments points over the year, meaning it could be worth up to £1,280 per pharmacy.

As referenced in NHS England’s quality criteria guidance, pharmacists will need to meet the SCR quality criterion, which requires contractors to be able to demonstrate on the day of the review, a total increase in access to SCR from period one to two.

For the 28 April 2017 review point, period one is from Monday 27 June 2016 to Sunday 27th November 2016; and period two is from Monday 28 November 2016 to Sunday 30 April 2017.

The calculator will show the number of times a pharmacy has viewed the SCR in period 1 and period 2. And will be updated every Thursday to show the latest figures.