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.

What is patient online access? 

Patient Access connects you to local health services when you need them most.

• Book or cancel GP and Nurse appointments online
• Order repeat prescriptions
• Look at your medication, allergies and immunisations
• Discover local health services for you or your family via your mobile or home computer.

You will be able to do this on a website, or an app, using a computer, a tablet or smartphone.

If you would like to register for online access, please call the surgery on 02380 282689.

Detailed access to your record

Once you are signed up to patient access, you have the option to request detailed access to your record. You will be able to see the following information online:

• Test results
• Problems
• Documents

To request this, call us on 02380 282689 and ask for a 'detailed access request form', you will then need to drop the form into the surgery with photo identification. 

Please allow 14 days for your request to be processed. 

Proxy access

Proxy access allows a parent, relative or carer to manage online services on behalf of another patient.

There are 3 age groups which need different forms completing:

• Children 0-10 - Parent/Guardian/Carer can complete the form and return to the surgery
• Children 11-15 - The child can opt for having their own access (but must have their own mobile number and email address), the child can opt of their parent/guardian/carer to have access or the child can opt of both to have access. 
• Adults 16+

The form needs completing with all parties having signed (except the first group).

To request any of these forms, please contact reception on 02380 282689.

NHS App

To use the NHS App you must be aged 13 or over and registered with a GP surgery in England.

Use the NHS App to:

• Get your NHS COVID Pass 
• Get advice about coronavirus
• Order repeat prescriptions 
• Book appointments 
• Get health advice
• View your health record 
• Register your organ donation decision
• Find out how the NHS uses your data
• View your NHS number

You can access your NHS covid pass without having to sign up to patient access, but to access everything else as mentioned above, you will need to sign up to patient access first. You can do this by contacting reception on 02380 282689.

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.