Patient Record

Permission to discuss my health records with someone else

We have created a form for patients to use to grant a representative the ability to communicate with us about them and their health.

Please either print the form from the link below or collect a printed copy from reception and return the completed form to the Surgery reception.

Discuss my health with someone else - Consent Form

Sharing Your Medical Record

Increasingly, patient medical data is shared e.g. between GP surgeries and District Nursing, in order to give clinicians access to the most up to date information when attending patients.

The systems we operate require that any sharing of medical information is consented to by patients beforehand. Patients must consent to sharing of the data held by a health provider out to other health providers and must also consent to which of the other providers can access their data.

e.g. it may be necessary to share data held in GP practices with district nurses but the local podiatry department would not need to see it to undertake their work. In this case, patients would allow the surgery to share their data, they would allow the district nurses to access it but they would not allow access by the podiatry department. In this way access to patient data is under patients' control and can be shared on a 'need to know' basis.

My Care Record enables health and care professionals to access information about you to improve your care.

Bridge Cottage Surgery is part of My Care Record, an approach to improving care by joining up health and care information. Wherever possible, health and care professionals will be able to access your records from other services when it is needed for your care. For example, a hospital doctor, community nurse, or social worker involved in your care could view the information they need from your GP record.

More information, including answers to frequently asked questions and a list of the organisations that are taking part can be found on the My Care Record website www.mycarerecord.org.uk.

Summary Care Record

There is a Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). The SCR is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. It will contain information about your medications and allergies.

Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held securely on central NHS databases.   

As with all systems there are pros and cons to think about. When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS Staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.

On the other hand, you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice. If you don’t want a SCR to be made available for you, tell your GP surgery. Don’t forget that if you do have a SCR, you will be asked if staff can look at it every time they need to. You don’t have to agree to this.

Access to Medical Records

Subject Access Requests (SAR)

You have the right to see what information we hold about you and to request a copy of this information. Under special circumstances, which have an overriding legal basis, some information may be withheld.

A subject access request can be made in writing or verbally but we will need to verify who you are. For ease of use, please complete this online form. Alternatively, please call 01438 715044 or email general.bridgecottagesurgery@nhs.net to submit your request to our Administration Clerk.

We will provide this information free of charge however, we may in some limited and exceptional circumstances have to apply a reasonable administrative charge for any extra copies or repetitive requests. If applicable, we will discuss this with you at the time of your request.

If you have consented to a third party to request a SAR on your behalf, we require the third party to supply us with your consent. Due to the confidentiality and sensitivity of health records, if we are unsure about the consent provided or think you may not be aware of the extent of what would be disclosed in the request, we may contact to review and confirm the request with you before the SAR is processed. 

If online access is a service available at the practice, there are robust protocols necessary for security of this information. When we give you online access or provide you with a SAR via another means, the responsibility is yours to make sure that you keep your information safe and secure if you do not wish any third party to gain access to it.

Access Requests for Deceased Patient Records: This is not managed under data protection legislation. The Access to Health Records Act 1990 includes this access. NHS England becomes the data controller of deceased patient records and access requests are reviewed as per this Act.

Requests to access should be made to the Primary Care Services England. https://pcse.england.nhs.uk/services/medical-records/accessing-medical-records/access-to-health-records-ahr/

Data Sharing - Opt Out Information

There has been a lot of talk in the media lately regarding data sharing by GP Practice’s we would like to reassure you that we would never sell your data or release it to parties outside of the NHS without your consent.

Please find the below links which will give you information on how the NHS stores and uses your data.

If after watching the video and reading the information, you would still like to opt out of the data sharing please use the below link to complete your information or the telephone number for NHS Digital Contact Centre

You can make or change a choice for:

  • yourself
  • children under the age of 13
  • someone you can legally make decisions for

Make your choice about sharing data from your health records – NHS (www.nhs.uk)

NHS Digital Contact Centre phone number: 0300 303 5678

Your choice will be entered into your records by NHS Digital and they will inform us of the choice, there is no need for you to contact your practice regarding this.

If you wish to register a Type 1 Opt-Out, please complete the Type 1 Opt Out Form we will record this information on your medical records.