The first live pilot of the electronic patient record system at the heart of the £12bn National Programme for NHS IT will start in May.

However, some doctors are still sceptical about the benefits of shared information.

Last week leaflets were sent out detailing the scheme to the 14,500 patients of the two early-adopter GP practices in Bolton.

After a two-month period, during which concerned patients may opt out, details of allergies, medication and adverse reactions will be uploaded from GP systems onto the national spine and linked to name and address data already held there.

Initially, the record will only be accessible in casualty departments, out-of-hours GP clinics and ambulance services within the Primary Care Trust.

But ultimately, as other areas begin to upload information, the service will build up into a national system.

The national record represents a major cultural change for the health service, says Marlene Winfield, the patient lead for Connecting for Health (CfH), the agency running the programme.

‘This is a whole new way of record keeping – it is now a shared record between the patient and the clinician,’ said Winfield.

‘We must not underestimate the impact of giving patients access to their records on how they relate to the NHS because, for the first time, it gives patients control over who sees their information and what they see,’ she said.

The IT element is challenging, but 90 per cent of the work being put into the project is on people and process issues including liaison with clinical bodies, procedural changes and data quality accreditation, says Winfield.

Six further pilots are expected to go ahead this year, with progress to be evaluated by an independent team led by Birmingham University. National rollout is due to begin next year.

Any concerns of doctors focus on how the electronic record will work in practice, says Dr Richard Vautrey, IT lead on the British Medical Association’s GP committee.

‘GPs are not fully convinced that this will add value, nor that the confidentiality issues are fully resolved, nor that patients are fully aware of the implications of sharing records in this way,’ said Vautrey.

It is not the power shift between patients and doctors that worries GPs, but that patients will become reticent about giving information for fear of what will end up on a central database, says Vautrey,

‘The concern is in maintaining the confidence that patients have in divulging sensitive information to their doctor,’ he said.

‘We need to see how this works in practice – it is one thing talking about it in theory and another to look at it in practice and see who is using it, how often and so on.’