Patient Record
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 Access
Patient access can be used for the following:
- Book appointments online
- Order repeat prescriptions
- See your medical record
- See your test results
Proxy Access Now Available
This is designed for all users of Patient Access who need to use the service on behalf of someone else. This may include:
- Families with young children
- Those who care for a family member or friend who finds using the internet difficult
- Professional carers
How do I access this feature?
To use Patient Access on behalf of your loved ones or dependents, you must request access via your GP.
For children under 11 years of age a parent/guardian can request access through the surgery and there is no need for the child to co sign the form. The access will be switched off on the child’s 11Th Birthday. The proxy will need to bring in ID with them.
For children 11-16 the parent/guardian can continue with proxy access but both the child and proxy must come into the surgery and sign the form in front of reception and bring ID. If the child wishes their own online account then this will be sent to the GP for approval. Also if the child declines the proxy access but the parent/guardians feels it would be in the patients best interest to continue then this will go to the GP for review and a decision made.The proxy can have their own account if they are deemed competent to make decisions. Proxy access will turn off on the child’s 16th Birthday. (reminders will be sent 3 months prior.)
Patients over 16 can grant proxy access to a carer/relative/friend on their behalf. Both the patient and the proxy will need to bring ID into the surgery and sign the forms giving explicit consent for the proxy to manage the patient’s online access.
If you are an existing online user then the next time you log into your account you will automatically be linked to the proxy account. (under linked users)
If not an existing online user already then once you register you will then have access to the linked patient at the point registration is complete.
The practice has the right to remove online access to services for anyone that does not use them responsibly.