Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The LCP is a secure computer system (hosted by ULHT) that enables users to view an integrated care record for patients.  It brings together selected patient information, from multiple organisations and systems in real time. 

In 2020 we introduced two new tabs in the chartbook which are the Care Plans and Published Care Plans tabs.  These new tabs allow staff with the appropriate Role Based Access Controls (RBAC) to add and contribute to an electronic single shared care plan via the Care Portal. 

Each organisation (i.e. ULHT, LCHS, LPFT) are responsible for providing their staff with access to the Care Portal through established processes.  The respective organisations are responsible for ensuring their staff follow existing policies and complete the eLearning modules.

All login and password issues are managed by the respective organisations using agreed processes.

Each organisation is responsible for managing access issues for their staff. 

Please refer to your respective organisations process if you experience Care Portal access issues and require your user ID and/or password reset. 

Yes, we have an agreed SPOC (Single Point of Contact) process with Lincolnshire County Council. The SPOC will co-ordinate access for you.  They also act as the SPOC for LCC staff experiencing Care Portal access issues.  

If you are a LCC staff member, please contact samantha.francis@lincolnshire.gov.uk  with your Care Portal request and rationale.

For NHS staff this is likely to be available via your desktop/laptop and may be pre-loaded or bookmarked accordingly.   If you cannot find these contact your respective organisational IT departments for help. 

First check your desktop/laptop as your organisation may have bookmarked this in your favourites as part of your induction.  Alternatively, once you are logged in to the Care Portal click on “help” and the modules are available.  

Please refer to section 2 of this document as screen shots have been added to assist. If both options aren’t working then try option accessing via the link below https://careportal.lincolnshire.nhs.uk/csp/docbook/lhachelp/help.html

Publishing a Care Plan results in the Plan being added to the Published Care Plans tab which allows for those Care Portal users who are allocated a “Clerical Admin” role to view the Care Plan.  

Active means the Care Plan becomes visible to other professionals where they are able to contribute to it as it is a “single shared Care Plan”. When publishing a Care Plan all that happens is that the particular version is available in the Published Care Plans tab.  It is not sent anywhere else outside of the Care Portal. This is covered in the Care Planning eLearning module. 

No, the system recognises if there is already a Care Plan of that type in the patient’s record.  There is full version control and history of previous versions available so no content is lost.   Refer to the Compare Care Plan versions section of this document.

At present only patients present on a ULHT system are available on the Care Portal, however, once an out of area patient is admitted into a ULHT Hospital they should be recorded on the PAS.   As soon as the patient’s details are processed on PAS (“clerked in on PAS”) it generates a message to the Lincolnshire Care Portal to add the patients record immediately, unless that is, the patient has opted out.    If the patient Opts out then their record will not appear in Care Portal so you will not be able to use the care Portal Care Plan capability and you will need to follow any manual process for your service.   Note: the NWAFT interface with the Care Portal is currently in progress and likely to be LIVE by summer 2021 (date TBC).

This is an operational decision. Please contact your service lead or operational lead and refer to any process they are responsible for. Once a Care Plan is marked as final no one will be able to contribute to that Care Plan.

Once a Care Plan is published it is available as a PDF in the Published Care Plans tab and can be printed. 

However, before printing a copy, think if this is absolutely necessary as the information is easily available on the Care Portal as a single shared care plan.  

This is an operational decision, please contact your service lead or operational lead and refer to any process they are responsible for.

Yes, any previous version of a Care Plan can be viewed as there is full audit history and version control available. 

You can either view a single previous version to see what content was added or you can compare two versions. Refer to section 2.1 of this document for more information on how to do this. 

This is an operational decision, please contact your service lead or operational lead and refer to any process they are responsible for.

It’s inevitable that a Care Plan’s content could change over time and this is why there is full version control and all previous Care Plan versions are saved on line and are never lost. 

You are able to see the previous version(s) that you contributed to and marked as active as well as comparing Care Plan versions.  Refer to section 2.1 of this document for details of how to view previous versions and comparing any two versions of the same Care Plan type.

Your organisation is responsible for ensuring you complete the eLearning module prior to using the Care Portal.  Refer to section 2 for more details as the Care Portal eLearning covers how to navigate around the care portal including searching for patients and claiming legitimate relationships.

The Care Portal eLearning as covered in section 2 provides a comprehensive overview of navigating around the Care Portal.  All staff accessing the Care Portal should have completed this prior to using the Care Portal.

This is an operational decision, please contact your service lead or operational lead and refer to any process they are responsible for.  If you require a demonstration please ask your operational team lead to request this via email to: lccg.stpdigital@nhs.net.

No, a Care Plan is prebuilt as a template that becomes available to add as a Care Plan to the patient’s record once you have searched and claimed a legitimate relationship with the patient. The service maintains accountability for the Care Plan template content. 

No, only dedicated resource can build a Care Plan template on behalf of the service.  This is to prevent variation of documentation where some teams may wish to customise a Care Plan for their team’s needs.  As mentioned earlier, the service and it’s operational leads are accountable for the content of a Care Plan and will provide an example of their Care Plan requirements and ensure any patient and clinical safety risk is completed before requesting a template is built.  Once a Care Plan template is built it will be demonstrated to the service / operational leads prior to its use on the Care Portal.  The service / operational lead will advise teams once a Care Plan is available via the Care Portal and provide users with their expected process to follow.

Yes, as the service/organisational leads own the content and decide how their electronic Care Plan will be used across their service/operationally. They will encourage users to raise change proposals to their Care Plan via team calls and working group calls. 

Any changes will be agreed by the service lead who is responsible for contacting the STP Digital team (via lccg.stpdigital@nhs.net ) with their revised Care Plan. Once the new Care Plan for the service is built as a template this will be shared with the service lead to confirm it meets needs.  Once confirmed the new Care Plan template will be added and any previous template used will be archived.    

No, the Care Portal doesn’t allow for forms to be scanned in.

If you require a Care Plan demonstration please ask your operational team lead to request this via email to: lccg.stpdigital@nhs.net.

If you leave a Care Plan in “Draft” status this will lock the care plan against your name which prevents any other professionals contributing to the Care Plan.

The purpose of moving to an electronic version is for the Care Plan to be a single shared care plan that others across the system (Acute, Community & Primary care) can contribute to as required.   You must always ensure the Care Plan is marked as Active before logging out of the Care Portal.   If you are contacted where you have a Care Plan locked you need to follow the actions as covered in section 2.6.

No.  As above, leaving a Care Plan in draft locks the care plan against that user regardless of organisation.  Each version that is edited and marked active records the person that has made those changes and includes the date and time when those changes were made.    

Yes, refer to section 2.5.  However if the Care Plan is shown as Published it will also be available to view in the Published Care Plans tab.

Anyone with the appropriate Role Based Access Controls (RBAC) will be able to view and/or contribute to the Care Plan. 

Note: there is full version control and any changes made to a Care Plan will be auditable and users can see previous versions.  Each version will show the person that made changes to that Care Plan including the date and time changes were made.

The Care Portal Role Based Access Control has Clinical Reference Group (CRG) governance.  Each organisation is responsible for allocating the appropriate RBAC for their staff.

Yes, publishing a Care Plan means that the version published is placed in the Published Care Plans tab.  The Care Plan can still continue to be contributed to once it is published.  As previously mentioned there is full version control.  Republishing a later Care Plan version means that the most recent version will be placed in the Published Care Plans tab and will replace any previous versions in that tab.  Remember, once published you need to reclaim the patient relationship to see that published care plan.

The Care Portal does not provide how to have a different conversation with a patient/individual that should be part of any systems/service Learning and Development training.  The Care Portal care planning capability just provides the method to record the outcome of that different conversation.  Please contact your operational lead if you require training in having different conversations.