Access to Medical Records

 

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Patient Access

With Patient Access you can use the internet to book appointments with your GP, request repeat prescriptions for regular medications and view your summary medical record online.  You may now apply for access to your detailed coded medical record online which includes the information from your summary medical record as well as additional information agreed with your doctor.  These requests are considered on a case-by-case basis and where agreed may take 4 - 6 weeks to process.

Being able to see either your summary medical record or your detailed coded record online may help you to manage your medical conditions. It also means that you can access it from anywhere in the world should you require medical treatment on holiday.  For legal reasons, online access to detailed coded medical records is only available to patients over 16 years of age.

You can apply to access for your records by completing our application form which is available at reception. You will need to complete this form and bring it to reception, and you must also bring photo ID and proof of address.

Our reception staff will photocopy this information and pass to our Administration Team who will process your request within 3 working days. If you would like more information on this service, please contact us via our online form or the usual practice phone number.  

Once signed up you can access the online system.

 

Subject Access Requests

In addition, you can make a request to be provided with copies of your record. This is known as a Subject Access Request.  Information on how to make a request can be found here

 

Things to consider:

If you print out any information from your record, it is 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. 

If you notice information on your record which you feel is inaccurate, or is not about you, please contact the surgery as soon as possible by using either: 

You may have forgotten something in your record that you might find upsetting or perhaps difficult to understand – this may occur before you have spoken to your doctor or while the surgery is closed, and you are not able to contact us. If you require further clarification, please contact the surgery for a clearer explanation.

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 are unable to do this for some reason, we recommend that you contact the practice so we can remove online access until you are able to reset your password.

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.

Please note that the practice has the right to remove online access to services for anyone that doesn’t use them responsibly.