eDEC Update - Important
It has come to our attention that the eDEC cannot be submitted without completion of 4X. (n) Practice email address used by patients.
Elsewhere in the guidance it states:
The answers you give to some of the questions could be published on the NHS website, nhs.uk. The answers that might be published are:
- practice services
- contact details such as the phone number, patient email address, and Facebook page
- information on wheelchair accessibility
- opening times
- the practice catchment area
- use of summary care record with additional information - whether the practice enriches the summary care record of patients who have given their consent
online appointment booking - whether the practice makes 25% of their total appointments available for booking online.
We have confirmed that it is not a contractual requirement for a practice to publish an e-mail address for patient use and some practices are understandably nervous about the potential patient safety and workload implications of opening up another method of communication. If you share these concerns we would recommend that you hold your eDEC until we can provide further guidance. GPC nationally are seeking an urgent resolution to this issue with NHSE/NHSD given the 17th December 2019 deadline for completion of eDEC.
We will provide a further update as soon as we hear anything.