It is now possible to view your NHS GP notes on line via our portal.  Which means you can

• see whether your GP has received any communication about you (e.g. hospital letter or scan result).  Please note that if you can't see the letter, we don't have the letter yet.  If you feel it is taking too long, contact the sender not the GP.  
• check your blood results are back and what the GP thought about them
• check you understood what the plan was at the end of your last consulation

This is a relatively new service.  If you had access to the online portal before this facility was added, you will need to contact us to enable it.   However, for reasons of data security we are obligued to ask to see photo ID to do so.  Unfortunately that means that during COVID (where we must limit footfall in the surgery) we cannot grant access to this service to patients who do not already have it activitated.

We are currently only able to grant access to your notes from the day we activate the service for you.  You will not be able to see anything before that date.

We consider confidentiality of paramount importance.  When you visit your GP you need to know that what is discussed will remain confidential.  There are very few exceptions to this, for example, if you disclose information which might make us feel there is a significant risk of harm to you or to the public.  In those situations we will discuss our concerns with you.

Keep your log-in details safe.  Only share them with someone if you are happy for them to have access to your confidential GP notes.

Increasingly, we need to share information with other services, in order to give those looking after you access to the most up-to-date information.  For example, if the community nursing (district nursing) team are going to visit you, they will need to know the reason they have been asked to visit.   

When they first register with us, we ask all patients for their consent to share their information in this way.  If you have been registered with us for a while you may not have been asked this question yet, but we will ask you when the need arises.  We encourage you to think carefully if you are considering witholding consent, as this may impact on the care provided by other services.

Other services will also ask for your consent to look at your GP record, and to share their data with your GP practice.  

For example, it may be necessary to share data held in GP practices with the community nursing team 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.

There is a 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.