The NHS wants to give people better ways to see their personal health information online.

We know that people want to be able to access their health records.  It can help you see test results faster.  It also lets you read and review notes from your appointments in your own time.

As you may be aware NHS England now want all patients to see all the information within their health record automatically.  This means that you will be able to see notes from your appointments, as well as test results and any letters that are saved on your records. This only applies to records from your doctor (GP), not from hospitals or other specialists. You will only be able to see information from October 2023 onwards.

At Clifton Road Surgery, we fully support the benefits some patients will have by having full access to their records.

However, the Partners have made a business decision (in line with the British Medical Association (BMA’s) advice) to protect vulnerable patients by not allowing full access at this time.

Please be aware, this decision has not been made lightly but all the Partners have unanimously agreed that ALL patients must be protected and providing access to all records may have implications for survivors of domestic abuse or indeed put them at greater risk.

The Surgery has undertaken a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) and this has been sent to the local Data Protection Officer / Information Governance Officer within Coventry & Warwickshire Integrated Commissioning Board, upon their receipt/action this will then be forward officially to the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) if required.

As Partners we have decided we must keep all our patients safe and this is the only way we can ensure this, at this time.  Our decision not to allow full access will be reviewed in October 2024.  However, online access to patient problems, medications, allergies and immunisations will remain – as before.

If patients need a copy of their records this can be done by a Subject Access Request (SAR).  Please just ask one of Reception staff members for a copy of the SAR form.

Patient Access To Their General Practitioner Records

Clifton Road Surgery is pleased to be able to provide patients with online access to their medical records via Patient Access. If you are not yet registered for our online services, you may want to do so by completing our Register for Online Services form.

We need to ensure that this does not disadvantage or put at risk our most vulnerable patients such as children, the elderly, those with mental health issues or those in abusive relationships. As such we have created a process that may appear to be overly bureaucratic but we hope you will support us in helping to protect these patients.

As yet there is no guidance on how to protect children and the systems are not sophisticated enough to turn on and off as the child ages, we have decided not to allow online access to patients under the age of eighteen years. At this age, we will grant access at the request of the individual.

We appreciate this may be frustrating for the vast majority of parents but we cannot see any other way to protect vulnerable children. This has been raised as an issue nationally but as yet no workable solution has been identified.

It is likely that some carers of individuals who lack appropriate capacity will wish to access the records of those for whom they care. The decision to allow access will be made on a case by case basis. The needs and desires of the individual patient will always be the overriding consideration.

Clifton Road Surgery started using computer systems to record medications and diagnosis in 1998. As the systems have changed there has been some data degradation and old codes have not always mapped successfully to new codes.

This has also been a problem when records have transferred in from other practices. An example of this was some men having the hysterectomy code added to their records. As such, there may be some codes on your records that you do not recognise or are incorrect.

We are very keen to improve the quality of our records so please advise us of anything in your records that you think is an error by writing to us or emailing medicalrecord.queriescrs@nhs.net.

Our email address is encrypted and secure, your system may not be so it may be safer to write. If an error has been made we will do our best to rectify the record. If you disagree with something in your records that we cannot confirm is an error, we may be able to insert your comments.

The practice has the right to remove online access to services for anyone that doesn’t use them responsibly or if we have concerns you are being forced to share your records inappropriately.

It will be your responsibility to keep your login details and password safe and secure. If you know or suspect that your record has been accessed by someone that you have not agreed should see it, then you should change your password immediately.

If you cannot change your password for some reason, we recommend that you contact the practice so that they can remove online access until you are able to reset your password.

If you print out any information from your record, it is also your responsibility to keep this secure. If you are at all worried about keeping printed copies safe, we recommend that you do not make copies at all.

Important Things to Consider

Before you apply for online access to your record, there are some other things to consider. Although the chances of any of these things happening are very small, you will be asked that you have read and understood the following before you are given login details.

Forgotten History

There may be something you have forgotten about in your record that you might find upsetting.

Abnormal Results or Bad News

Having access to test results or letters, you may see something that you find upsetting to you. This may occur before you have spoken to your doctor or while the surgery is closed and you cannot contact them.

Choosing to Share Your Information with Someone

It’s up to you whether or not you share your information with others, perhaps family members or carers. It’s your choice, but also your responsibility to keep the information safe and secure.

Coercion

If you think you may be pressured into revealing details from your patient record to someone else against your will, it is best that you do not register for access at this time.

Misunderstood Information

Your medical record is designed to be used by clinical professionals to ensure that you receive the best possible care. Some of the information within your medical record may be highly technical, written by specialists and not easily understood.

Information About Someone Else

If you spot something in the record that is not about you or notice any other errors, please log out of the system immediately and contact the practice as soon as possible.

What Does That Mean – I’ll Google It

We are aware that your medical records will contain information you might not understand. Quite often, it is very tempting to Google medical words and phrases.

Whilst we would not encourage this but if you do Google please only use accredited peer-reviewed sites for accurate information. We recommended using www.patient.co.uk as this will have almost all of the information that you might need

What You Can Access

Below are the records you will be able to access. Please read through each record area so that you understand, signing up for access implies you agree to the terms and wish to access the all/certain areas of your records.

Immunisations

This is a record of your immunisations that are held electronically.

Allergies

Medical allergies that have been recorded with a code will appear here. A number of patients have a record of a penicillin allergy that is inaccurate so please let us know if you think your record is inaccurate.

Medical History

This is a record of major medical diagnosis. If something is missing or you do not agree, please do not use an appointment to let us know but follow the process outlined above If you write to us with any errors you believe exist and we will review your medical notes.

We will then advise you of any changes we have made or if we need to discuss further.

Results

It is important to realise that laboratory results may be outside of the so-called normal range for many reasons, such things as race, age, degree of physical activity, problems with collection and/or handling of the specimen and a large number of non-illness-related factors.

The normal range also only covers 95% of patients which mean that 5% of healthy patients fall outside of the normal range, even when there is nothing wrong with them.

It is important to realise it is not usually possible to diagnose a disease with a blood test alone. It may, however, help you to learn more about your body and detect potential problems in early stages when treatment or changes in personal habits can be most effective.

The comments your doctor attaches to your results are their interpretation of whether or not any changes are meaningful.

Normal – No action The result is within the normal range for the test and no further investigation or treatment is needed.

Acceptable – The result is very close to the normal range for the test and not concerning or the result is acceptable for you.

Routine appointment – This means the doctor wishes to explain the result(s) face to face as detailed explanations and/or further treatment or investigation(s) may be necessary.

Pre-clinic – Used for diabetic patients who will have their results discussed during their next clinic review if needed.

Repeat in 1month/2month/3months etc. – The result is currently acceptable but the doctor wishes to recheck this at a later date either to ensure that there are no further changes or as part of ongoing monitoring perhaps due to medication/ underlying illness.

Other comments not listed above are normally self-explanatory but if in doubt can be checked with office staff.

Medication

A list of the current medication you have on repeat or have had issued acutely recently.

Consultations

You can see the coded entries in your electronic consultations from us and previous practices with compatible IT. These are records the clinical staff have made after your contacts with the surgery e.g. appointments, telephone consultations and visits.

If you believe something is factually wrong please let us know as above.

If you are already registered for online access (prior to consultations, test results, etc, being opened up) you will need to either telephone the surgery on 01788 552211 or email medicalrecord.queriescrs@nhs.net and ask for your account to be updated to allow full access.

To have online and on going access to your medical records, you will need to:

Request access

To do this, you will need to email the following request to patientaccess.crs@nhs.net

• In the Subject Box type “Subject Access Request”
• In the main message box type “Please provide me with full electronic access to my medical records, in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).” Followed by your full name, address, date of birth and contact number.

Confidentiality

One of our Administrators will contact you to ensure the request is genuine and therefore ensure patient confidentiality.

Confirmation

A reply email will be sent outlining your subject access request, it is important that you reply to this email, confirming your request – failure to do this will mean access will not be granted.

Our age of consent is 14, therefore children over this age must request their own records. Medical records for those under the age of 14 will not be accessible online.

You are advised that the making of false or misleading statements in order to obtain personal information, to which you are not entitled, is a criminal offence which could lead to prosecution.

Have you ever visited us and wondered why we can’t see all of your health and care information? Or queried why you sometimes need to answer the same questions about your medications, allergies or treatment each time you visit your local GP or hospital?

The simple answer is we all use different computer systems to record your details. However, that’s now changing with the introduction of the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Record (ICR).

The ICR is bringing together the various electronic records of a person’s care and presenting it in a structured and easy-to-read format for health and care professionals to use.

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=znnDrrai-mU

For more information, visit the Coventry and Warwickshire Integrated Care Record website.