Patient Record

View your medical record

Update personal details

Sharing Your Medical Record

Increasingly, patient medical data is shared e.g. between GP surgeries and District Nursing, in order to give clinicians access to the most up to date information when attending patients.

The systems we operate require that any sharing of medical information is consented to by patients beforehand. Patients must consent to sharing of the data held by a health provider out to other health providers and must also consent to which of the other providers can access their data.

e.g. it may be necessary to share data held in GP practices with district nurses but the local podiatry department would not need to see it to undertake their work. In this case, patients would allow the surgery to share their data, they would allow the district nurses to access it but they would not allow access by the podiatry department. In this way access to patient data is under patients' control and can be shared on a 'need to know' basis.

Summary Care Record

There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). The Summary Care Record is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. Initially, it will contain just your medications and allergies.

Later on as the central NHS computer system develops, (known as the ‘Summary Care Record’ – SCR), other staff who work in the NHS will be able to access it along with information from hospitals, out of hours services, and specialists letters that may be added as well.

Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held on central NHS databases.

As with all new systems there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS Staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.

On the other hand, you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. Connecting for Health (CfH), the government agency responsible for the Summary Care Record have agreed with doctors’ leaders that new patients registering with this practice should be able to decide whether or not their information is uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System.

For existing patients it is different in that it is assumed that you want your record uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System unless you actively opt out.

Patient Online Access to Medical Records

Patient Online is an NHS England programme designed to support GP Practices to offer and promote on line services to patients including the option to make and cancel appointments, order repeat prescriptions and view their electronic medical record, using their computer, tablet or smartphone rather than having to phone or visit their practice. Online services will complement and not replace the existing way patients access appointments, prescriptions and their records i.e. by telephone, visiting the Practice

The Practice already offers patients Online Access to make and cancel appointments, order repeat prescriptions but from 1st April 2015 patients can view their medical record online. Not all records will be available – you will be able to see your medication, any appointments made, allergies, adverse reactions, results of blood tests, immunisations and vaccinations and your medical problems. If you decide to use the medical record facility on line and you feel that any of the information is incorrect, you should contact the Practice in order that any errors can be rectified.

The medical information online will include everything in your computerised records but occasionally there can be information in your historical paper records that has not been transferred over i.e. child vaccinations in 8 year olds.

If you already use Online Access to make appointments or order repeat prescriptions, you will need to come into the Practice to sign an application form so that the medical records option can be activated on the clinical system.

Any new patients will be unable to have the medical records facility until they have been registered at the Practice for three months, as it takes time for records to be received and checked for accuracy before they are uploaded onto the computer system.

If you wish to know more about Online Access, please use the links below to download and view a poster, Patient Information Leaflet, Frequently Asked Questions and an application form. Patients can also call in at the Practice to collect the information.

If you are a new patient or have been registered with the Practice for less than two years, when applying for registration details, you will have to provide identification i.e. photo ID and proof of residence.

You do not have to use all the facilities offered. Only tick the box of the online services you wish to have access to. You will be given a letter with details of how to register online. You will go to http://www.patientaccess.co.uk and click on Register in the Register Box. You will then be asked the question ‘Have you received a registration letter from your practice?’ to which you should answer Yes. Enter the registration details shown and click next to enter your name, date of birth and to choose a password. You will use this password to sign in when using the facility. Security questions will also be asked. The letter also gives you details on how to sign in and what to do if you forget your sign in details.

When you have received your registration information, this will only be valid for a limited period of time so please register before the date stipulated.