I believe it should. Distributed to maximise local access to locally relevant records and to minimise impact on central servers. Local Divisions of General Practice would be appropriate as long as they were suitably supported to provide the required security, administration, and space. It would help meet the objectives but at present is limited by size of information able to be stored and is a risky strategy both considering loss of the record and potential theft. It is similar in concept to everyone carrying a drivers licence but if that is lost the information can still be obtained from another source and a new card issued.
Internet infrastructure is available but security is an issue.
Security may be tighter on private networks but the infrastructure is not developed. I would be pushing for Internet technology and fully exploring security facilities that restrict access to the information. Layered levels of access dependent on patient authorisation. As an example, a patient would discuss the level of access they were happy to grant their GP and this would remain valid until they revoked it. They would perhaps grant access to a particular pharmacist for medication-related information and this again would remain valid until revoked by the patient.