Access to Online Medical Records - England

DCUKMod

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I know we fairly regularly have questions about accessing our own medical records, and to what level. I hope this link could be useful to someone along the way, and I have tried to make the title fairl easirly searchable.

Unfortunately, I am unaware of similar documents for Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, but if anyone knows of those, we could always add the links here.

I am fortunate to have full access to my full record for my lifetime, although my childhood records, from the dark ages are really just the major highlights and vaccinations/inoculations. I imagine the paper documents would have been very difficult to preserve well and interpret. My OH has only recently requested similar access to his own records, as he had no interest, but even he has found them fascinating reading.

https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-conte...ng-patient-access-detailed-online-records.pdf
 

Listlad

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I was in our local surgery on Friday, for an HbA1c Test and it was being heavily promoted there via a manned desk.

( A few days early, My GP said that he thought it was great that we could get access to our records )
 
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TriciaWs

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I am glad they are finally storing and letting us see our records.
But I know that most of my medical records from before I was 20 are missing - the GP actually sat and binned most of them in front of me when I was about to move house. He kept the ones with the incorrect diagnosis of depression (actually PTSD, diagnosed and treated 40 years later) and passed those on - it followed me but the important information about my congenital eye condition and the first operation were lost.
 
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Bluetit1802

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I have been able to see mine since the very beginning of this initiative, sometime in 2015 or early 2016.
Even now more details are being added, and certain things changed or moved about. It pays to keep an eye on this.
I can see back to my babyhood for certain things (1948)
Some things are missing, with gaps, but pretty much everything from around 2006.
 

DCUKMod

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I have been able to see mine since the very beginning of this initiative, sometime in 2015 or early 2016.
Even now more details are being added, and certain things changed or moved about. It pays to keep an eye on this.
I can see back to my babyhood for certain things (1948)
Some things are missing, with gaps, but pretty much everything from around 2006.

I had access to my coded record from the get-go, but my surgery didn't offer access to the full record for ages. I happened to be in the website settings one day and noticed I could request expanded access, which I did.
 
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Daphne917

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I’ve just gone into mine and can still only order repeat prescriptions or make an appointnent - although apparently there are none at all in our practice at the moment. When I checked a couple of weeks ago re seeing my records on line I was told it was up to the GPs what access they gave.
 

Listlad

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I’ve just gone into mine and can still only order repeat prescriptions or make an appointnent - although apparently there are none at all in our practice at the moment. When I checked a couple of weeks ago re seeing my records on line I was told it was up to the GPs what access they gave.
You have to request further access to gain that access. This involves filling out a request form. Mine took just a few days.
 

Daphne917

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You have to request further access to gain that access. This involves filling out a request form. Mine took just a few days.
Tried asking but got a categorical ‘no’. I’ll try again in July when I’m next in there.
 

DCUKMod

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Tried asking but got a categorical ‘no’. I’ll try again in July when I’m next in there.

I must say, when I got access, it seems very few were doing so. In November 2017 (just checked my record for the date), I had an appointment with the senior partner, who ordered up some bloods, and recommended I wait 7 days before enquiring about results. He was astonished I could access my record and had zero idea how it worked, or the benefits it could being to patients (no more serial phone calls and grovelling to receptionists for results) and commercially to the practise (so fewer serial phone calls and grovelkling to receptionists for results, and so on).

I couldn't believe my ears.

When my OH decided to have access, just a few weeks ago, the process for him was much more slick, and had been done before we left the building, unlike mine that seemed to take an age.

The current changes to repeat prescription rules, meaning pharmacies will (from the end of this month) no longer be able to request prescription medication on behalf of the patient, so far more folks are likely to be using online services, even if only to order theur repeat meds. That timing might help you a bit.

If you get no joy in July, the body of the document has a link to a copy of the GMS contract.

I'd be inclined to print out both documents, the write to the Senior Partner, enclosing both, asking if they have signed up to the GMS contract why they are not complying with the requirements within it.

If they are individually refusing you access, then you should know why. If they just don't do it, I'd push a complaint up the line.

If they are not complying in this regards, what other areas are they non-compliant? (rhetorical)
 

Pinkorchid

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I’ve just gone into mine and can still only order repeat prescriptions or make an appointnent - although apparently there are none at all in our practice at the moment. When I checked a couple of weeks ago re seeing my records on line I was told it was up to the GPs what access they gave.
Yes thats the same with me I was told that it is down to the doctors how much patients can see online As long as there is something on our access like making appointments and ordering repeat medication that is all they are obliged to do
 
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WuTwo

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And to whom the principle of ahimsa is a closed book that they refuse to open because it would make life more difficult for them.
My surgery has info saying to collect the form from reception and bring it back filled in, with two sources of identification (usual sorts - driving licence, passport, etc). They then email the link to the access site together with a "let me in" number which, once registered with the site by filling the usual online info in, you change for a proper password. That's it.

I downloaded everything from my records that I possibly could. Amazing how much of it there is. Test results, meds, brief reports on consultations - the lot.
 

Prem51

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It took me nine months to get access. I could re-order meds and make appointments online before, but now I have access to test results, nothing else.
 

Daibell

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Hi. CCGs are now supporting access to online test results etc. Surgeries should provide this on request unless they feel the patient couldn't handle certain results. Always ask to see the Practice Manager not the GP to get access and fill in the forms. If they won't provide access then you can complain to the local CCG. Your surgery should have a PPG (Patient Participation Group) and I'm a member of ours. You can raise the issue with them.
 

Listlad

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Just got my latest HbA1c result online, over the weekend.
 

Bluetit1802

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Just got my latest HbA1c result online, over the weekend.

Yes, that happened to me once. My blood was drawn on a Friday morning. Most of the results appeared on the Sunday evening, the rest arrived the next day.