Accessing your GP-held records via the NHS app or NHS website

As your GP practice, we have been asked to provide you with, no later than 31 October 2023, access to your full medical record going forward via the NHS app (and NHS website) if you have a suitable NHS login

Your GP medical record contains consultation notes based on conversations between you, your GP and their team: medicines prescribed to you; all test results including hospital investigations; allergies; vaccines; and your medical conditions along with documents that may have been sent from local hospitals, clinics or other agencies, eg the police. There is likely to be sensitive and personal information within your medical record.

For more detailed information and to access request form please click here:

Accessing your GP records via the NHS App or NHS Website

 

Register for Online Services

The practice uses a computer system called SystmOne for all of our day to day work, including for managing our appointment system.

You are able to register to enable you to:

  • book or cancel appointments
  • order repeat prescriptions
  • access to your medical record (limited)
  • Change your contact details - address, email and telephone number

Once registered you will be able to access the system at any time, 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year.

What appointments can be booked online?

We offer a proportion of our routine appointments available for booking online. If no appointments seem to be available within the timescale that you are looking to book online then please call our team who may have access to other appointment slots. We regularly review the number of appointments available for online booking and adjust this according to demand.

Emergency on the day appointments are not available for on-line booking. Please contact the surgery if you have an urgent need to be seen.

How do I register for online access?

It’s easy!

If you are registering as a new patient then you will be asked if you would like access to our online services at the time you register.

If you are one of our existing patients please pop into the surgery with 2 pieces of identification. One will need to have your photograph on it, such as a driving licence or passport, the other proof of your address, such as a utility bill, issued within the past 6 months.

Is it safe?

Our system has a high level of security, similar to that used for online banking. Only we can see the information that you submit through the website.

How do I access the online services?

Once you have your username and password you can access the online services here or at various places around our website.

Enter Online Services

SystmOnline - A Guide for Patients

Online Services for Under 16s

In light of the new functions of the online service, we have had to review confidentiality procedures and how online services impact on this. We have also taken into account a recent publication from the Royal College of General Practitioners and the advice they have given.

As a result, we have concluded that we cannot offer online services to patients under the age of 16. We recognise that this is disappointing for some patients and can only apologise for the inconvenience it causes.

However, we have to take these measures to ensure that our confidentiality policies are carefully met. Patients under the age of 16, or their parent / guardian, can still order prescriptions in person, in writing or via their pharmacist as before. Appointments for patients under 16 can be booked or cancelled via telephone or in person at the surgery.

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.

For example, 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.

If you wish to share your patient information with a third party, then please complete this form Patient Consent Form and return to the practice by email or by post

National Data Collection - Why we need your data

Patient data is used every day to improve healthcare services through planning and research in England, helping to find better treatments and improve patient care.

It helps to decide what new health and care services are required in a local area, informs clinical guidance and policy, and supports researching and developing cures for serious illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

For example, GP data collected as part of the COVID response is being used by the University of Oxford RECOVERY trial, which is looking to find ways to improve the treatment for people with COVID-19. 

You can read more about what the data is used for here: NHS Digital and here: Your Data Matters

National Data Opt-Out - Your Data Your Choice

You have the right to opt out of sharing your medical information.

You can download the Type 1 opt out  form here

Once you have completed it you can either:

  1. Post it to your GP Surgery
  2. Email it to your GP surgery

Read more about the different types of opt out here: Opting out of sharing your record

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.