Health or social care professionals involved in your care can view your plan, and depending on their role, they may be able to create or update it. Please contact us for more detail.

Speak to your healthcare professionals, such as the GP or nurse looking after you. 

Our next development will enable you to start and update your care plan directly through the NHS App. 

You can view your care plan in your NHS App by going to Your Health > Care Plans > Universal Care Plan. It updates in real time, and you can see who last updated it and when.

If you would like to make changes to your care plan, please speak with your healthcare professionals. Our next development will allow you to edit your care plan directly from the NHS App.

If you no longer wish to have a care plan accessible to healthcare professionals or you do not wish to have a care plan created for you in the first instance, you should speak to your healthcare professional. We ask you to think carefully before making this decision as sharing your health and social care information will make it easier for services to provide the best treatment and care for you.

If you choose to opt-out:

• You may have to answer questions repeatedly because your full history may not be available to the care professional assessing you.
• Decisions about your care may take longer, even in emergency situations, as history needs to be confirmed.
• Your choices and wishes regarding your care will not be known to emergency services if you become unconscious or do not have the capacity to make your wishes known.

We ensure the information we hold is kept in secure locations and access is restricted to authorised staff only. All staff are obliged to keep the information secure and confidential and not share it with other colleagues without proper authorisation.

The NHS Digital Code of Practice on Confidential Information applies to all our staff, and they are required to protect your information, inform you of how your information will be used, and allow you to decide if and how your information can be shared. All staff with access to personal data are trained to ensure information is always kept confidential. Our Universal Care Plan System Privacy Notice sets out our technical and security measures. 

If a person with a UCP has died, when the person’s care plan is next opened by a health or care professional, it will automatically update to show that the patient is deceased. The care plan will no longer be flagged to the urgent care services, however the care plan remains on the UCP system.

If preferred, the patient’s next of kin or lasting power of attorney can request for the record to be withdrawn from the system. In this case, the record of the deceased citizen is therefore stored and subsequently destroyed in line with the NHS data retention policy. Withdrawing a care plan can be completed by a healthcare professional who has been involved in the patient’s care. Please speak to a healthcare professional for more information.

Consent to the creation of a UCP care plan is always encouraged and advised. In the vast majority of cases, your healthcare professional will discuss creating a care plan with you, before creating your care plan.

In a small number of cases where it may be in your best interest to have a care plan e.g. if you lack capacity to make care planning decisions that may benefit your health, a care plan may be created on your behalf with an attorney, a loved one or by your clinician. Please do contact us to discuss this further as required.

There are strict standards and legislation supporting this as highlighted below.

• Section 30 and 31 – Using and disclosing patient information for direct care – professional standards – GMC
• Legal and professional requirements – NHS Englad Consent to using and sharing patient information
• Exceptions – Section 10: Using health and social care information – direct care and indirect care – NHS Digital

If you have moved out of London, your UCP will still be viewable to any healthcare professionals that may treat you from a London organisation, for example if you are continuing treatment at a hospital in London, or if you access urgent care services in London. 

If you would like your new GP outside of London to be able to see your UCP, you should ask your GP in London to print a copy, which you can take with you so your local out of London care planning processes can be followed. If you wish for your UCP to be withdrawn, you can ask your GP in London to do this. When your plan is withdrawn, it won’t be visible to anyone who treats you.