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Your Records at the Surgery are securely maintained on a firewalled EMIS Server to NHS Secure IT Infrastructure Specifications. No one except your GP or Nurse treating you or administration staff processing appointments can see your medical records. Non-clinical staff are bound by confidentiality agreements in their contracts of employment.
Patients can see their health records or request a copy. Patients can expect to pay the following for copies: £10 for a copy of all computerised records. No more than £50 for records held manually. For more help and advice, read the Patient's Association leaflet on accessing your medical records or call them on 0845 608 4455.
We have joined the “Record Access Collaborative” and currently enable patients to view their recent medical record on a secure online system (similar to Internet Banking Secure Sites). More about Medical Record (MR) Access HERE
PRIMIS
The practice is making use of the PRIMIS resource to improve the quality of the patient information it stores within the practice and improve your medical notes. We will not allow your notes to be divulged to anybody without your consent. If you wish at any time to see or amend your notes please ask the practice manager.
NHS HealthSpace is a secure online personal health organiser. Anyone over the age of 18 and living in England can open a HealthSpace account.
NHS HealthSpace was launched in December 2003. It aims to ensure that people can easily access the right information about their personal healthcare at a time that is convenient to them. The full potential of an online personal health organiser will be realised when HealthSpace enables people to access their NHS Summary Care Record.
 NHS Summary Care Record
www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk
Anyone in the NHS who provides us with care has to make a record of the treatment they have provided, either on paper or computer.
But if this information is needed by a doctor or other health care professional elsewhere in the NHS, it can usually only be shared by letter, email, fax or phone.
Even having appointments in different departments of the same hospital can mean having to wait for piles of paper records to be transferred from one place to another. Doctors may have to take up valuable time during a consultation, asking patients questions which have already been answered elsewhere.
Over time, the NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS) will begin to provide quicker ways to access important information, including in an emergency.
It is likely that your GP or consultant already uses a computer system to keep notes of appointments they have with you, plus medicines prescribed, test results and details of any referrals to other health professionals. X-rays and scans are also increasingly held on computers rather than sheets of film.
Other parts of the NHS may also have records in electronic form about the treatment they have given you. The purpose of NHS CRS is to allow this information to be accessed more quickly, and gradually to phase out paper and film records which can be more difficult to access.
A key part of the NHS Care Records Service will be the gradual development of a Summary Care Record for each of the 50 million plus NHS patients in England. This will be available to NHS staff involved in your care, anywhere in the country.
The NHS will begin creating Summary Care Records in 2007. It will be several years before everyone has one. You will be told when they are coming to your area.
Once the new service is fully in place, anyone working for the NHS who needs to look at your health care records on a computer, will have to be directly involved in your treatment. They will also need a special smartcard, protected by a chip and passcode, in order to access the computer system. These are only issued after thorough security checks.
Not everyone involved in your care will be able to see all of your records. The amount of information they can see will depend on their job. A doctor who is treating you, for example, will be able to see your full clinical records, whilst a receptionist should only see the information needed to make an appointment.
An automatic record will be kept of anyone who has accessed your care record – who they are and what they did. You can ask to see this information.
Sometimes your care team includes other care professionals – such as social workers – who are not part of the NHS. These professionals may have access to parts of your records. You will be told if this happens.
Already, by law, everyone working for or on behalf of the NHS must respect your confidentiality and keep all information about you secure. The NHS has published the NHS Care Record Guarantee for England. This sets out 12 commitments about how the NHS Care Records Service will collect, store and allow access to your electronic records. You can read or download a copy of the NHS Care Record Guarantee.
The NHS Care Records Service will use the strongest national and international security measures available for storing your information. These measures make sure that your information is stored safely and stays private while it is being transferred.
Opting Out
The British Medical Association has told its members that if a patient wishes to opt out it should be recorded on their record and the GP practice should discuss their request nearer to the time when the SCR is launched in their area.
Request for all clinical data to be withheld from the Summary Care Record - complete and bring this to the surgery
IF I DO NOT HAVE A SUMMARY CARE RECORD LEAFLET
Opt Out Read Code 93C3 (refused consent for upload to national electronic shared record) More info
The BMA recommends that practices should not opt out patients by default as it believes patients should be fully informed before they decide whether they would like to opt out.
www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk
Text of letter sent from the Department of Health to patients expressing concern over electronic care records
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