Patient record access

Patient record access in the United Kingdom has developed most fully in respect of the GP record, because computerisation in that field is almost universal. Many British hospitals still use paper records.

Only 3% of GPs in England offer online record access in October 2014 to patients although all of them will be expected to by April 2015.EMIS said that the numbers of practices providing patients with online access to their records ‘shot up’ after it allowed GPs to tailor the parts of the record that patients can see. GPs are required from 2015 only to offer patients online access to the medication, allergies and adverse reactions in their summary care record, not to the complete record.Jeremy Hunt announced in September 2015 that all patients will be entitled to read and write to all their NHS health records online by 2018.

Failures to link up medical records held by hospitals and those kept by their family doctors put patient's lives at risk, according to Prof Steve Field of the Care Quality Commission. He says this could be tackled by giving patients access to their own records – a system pioneered, in an attempt to restore patient confidence, by Dr Amir Hannan. Hannan faced a difficult problem when he took over the GP practice formerly held by Dr Harold Shipman, who had murdered several hundred patients. “It was very difficult to recruit to Shipman’s practice because of [the lack of] trust locally. But Amir said, ‘Right from the start I will share everything with my patients, and gave them access to all their own records." "He’s got examples of patients being admitted to hospital where they have had to show the consultants their record which may have saved their lives. It’s policy to try and make it happen. But it’s not moving quickly enough.”

150 patients at the practice were given access to their medical records and test results over the internet in 2007 using a system run by Emis. They could go online to order prescriptions, communicate with their GP or even to print off their medical records to take to appointments with hospital consultants. As of October 2014 the practice had enabled over 3,200 patients - 28% of its total patient population - to have electronic access to their GP record. This level of access has been shown to cut down on appointments by as much as 12% and the number of phone calls made to practices.

Ingrid Brindle, a patient at Hannan's practice, has had online access to her record for over eight years. She said having access to her record was ‘invaluable’ and allowed her and her GP to work together as a ‘team’. ‘The amount of time I don’t have to contact the practice is incredible,’ she told GPs at a King’s Fund event. ‘I really don’t understand why so little progress has been made. Empowering patients and giving them control over their situation so that they understand when they're making their health choices, to me it’s a no-brainer.’

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