Patients to get access to GP records via NHS.uk in September 2017
- 6 April 2017
Patients will be able to access their GP record via the revamped NHS.uk from September 2017, according to NHS Digital.
NHS Digital’s latest board papers, which were published 28 March, mention the aim and state a target go live date of 30 September 2017. A spokeswoman subsequently confirmed the timing to Digital Health News.
A spokesman for TPP, providers of the SystmOne EPR which is widely used in primary care, said the company is working with NHS Digital to give patients access to their GP record via NHS.uk. “TPP is providing access to SystmOnline APIs.”
He said the patient will be able to see their record, request and order repeat medication, view and book appointments, and exchange messages with their practice.
“We are working towards a September deadline for the personal health record to be available to everyone in the country.”
The citizen identity service is also due to go live on 30 September.
This will allow patients to securely login to NHS.uk.
The NHS.uk project was resurrected in autumn last year.
In September 2016 health secretary Jeremy Hunt announced the plans to revamp NHS Choices, but the NHS.uk team has been blogging about the project since 2015.
It was back in June 2015 that the rebranding was announced by Beverley Bryant, then director of strategic systems and technology at NHS England.
Last month, Juliet Bauer, director of digital experience at NHS England said the organisation was working with Google and Bing to increase the visibility of NHS content online.
Digital Health News has previously reported that NHS.uk would, with consent, track users’ browsing history within the site and their location to provide personalised health advice.
14 Comments
Cost Benefit. Could have been worked out. Bet if it had been worked out , and costs properely worked out , then they would not pushed this through with this time table and in this pattern. Only by setting clinical time costs at zero, and the ignoring the effect that it drives more clinicians out of practice , could this throwing away of resources be justified.
Will this allow Full Record Access? I have just had to issue an SAR to access medical records to see the blood results on a long term condition. My GP practice have given the minimum possible access to the detailed coded access by date limiting to the date of application.
EMIS does all that except my medical notes just tell me my prescribed medications nothing else 🙁 Its at times like these I get twitchy and start to think about access requests to my data. Maybe once the GDPR comes in and I don’t have to pay for it!
Will this also allow an individual patient to log into any portal that holds a record on them e.g. secondary care, mental health etc?
I would argue that it should be a requirement for all vendors to make their system accessible via this route and thus save the patient having to remember multiple logins. Failure to do this will have a major adverse impact on take up
Legally every organisation will need to do this or something very similar for all their systems if they are to comply with the new data protection legislation when it comes into force next year. Individuals will have a legal right to data portability in a machine-readable format, so APIs / structured downloads for all systems are going to be a must as anything else isn’t sustainable.
What is the difference Dan? good question.
I would say no difference its just been bolted on to a glorified NHS.UK website.
I wonder how much this ‘innovative’ work is costing the NHS. GP Practices have their own patient facing websites with perfectly good links through to their online clinical systems.
Or via apps on phones or tablets
No difference. Just an alternative to EMIS Patient Access, or I-Patient. Same info, different app.
What is the difference between this and what I already get on EMIS?
Great stuff, on a Emis practice and all my community notes are on Systmone will i see all of it, i doubt it?
I would expect in your case you will see the GP record only (EMIS).
(Yes technically it should be possible to access both but expect to see NHS/commercial barriers to prevent it)
Makes some sense but someone will still need to check the patients understanding of the risks and benefits,, confirm their ID and possibly have their records checked by practices before access can be granted. I am not sure if all this is automated or can/should be but the benefits to the majority may well outweigh the risks of not doing this safely for a few.
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