Contractual requirements came into force from 1st April 2014 requiring that GP practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:
- Referral management
- Electronic appointment booking
- Online booking of repeat prescriptions
- Summary Care Record / National Data opt-out policy
- GP2GP transfers
- Patient access to records
Please find below details of the practice policies with regards to these developments:
Referral management
The practice policy is to include patient NHS numbers as the primary identifier in all NHS correspondence.
Electronic appointment booking
Practices are required to promote and offer the facility for all patients, who wish to, book, view, amend, cancel and print appointments online.
We currently offer the facility for booking, changing or cancelling appointments online.
Online booking of repeat prescriptions
Practices are required to promote and offer the facility for all patients, who wish to, to order online, view and print a list of their repeat prescriptions for necessary drugs, medicines or appliances.
We currently offer the facility for patients to view and order repeat prescriptions online.
Summary Care Record / National Data opt-out policy
Practices are required to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to a patient’s summary information, to the Summary Care Record.
Your Summary Care Record details any medication you may be taking and any drugs that you have recorded as having an allergy to. This will help anyone treating you, by allowing access to this information without them seeing your full medical record. Patients who do not want their medical records to be available to emergency, out of hours, 111 or hospital providers, can ‘opt out’ of this service.
Woosehill Medical Centre is compliant with the Summary Care record.
National Data opt-out policy
The national data opt-out was introduced on 25 May 2018, enabling patients to opt out from the use of their data for research or planning purposes, in line with the recommendations of the National Data Guardian in her Review of Data Security, Consent and Opt-Outs.
Patients can view or change their national data opt-out choice at any time by using the online service at www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters or by calling 0300 3035678.
By 2020 all Health and Care Organisations are required to be compliant with the national data opt-out policy. NHS Digital and Public Health England are already compliant and are applying national data opt-outs.
Woosehill Medical Centre is compliant with the National Data Opt-Out Policy and functionality to remove the records of patients who have registered a national data opt-out is being implemented by our clinical supplier EMIS; this is expected before the end of March 20.
Patients can find out more about their opt-out choice at:
- www.digital.nhs.uk/setting-or-changing-a-national-data-opt-out-choice
- www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters
To choose if data from your health records is shared for research and planning, please start the process here.
GP2GP record transfers
There is a contractual requirement to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers. It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times.
If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England.
It can take several weeks for your paper records to reach your new surgery.
With GP to GP record transfers, your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.
Woosehill Medical Centre processes medical records by GP2GP transfers. We send and receive patient records via this system to expedite record transfers.
Patient access to their GP record
Practices are required to promote and offer the facility for patients to view online, export or print any summary of information from their records relating to medications, allergies, adverse reactions and any other items/date such as ‘additional’ record elements which has been agreed between the contractor and the patient.
Woosehill Medical Centre has activated patient access on our system. We offer patient’s online access to their medical records; this includes medications, allergies, test results, immunisations and problems. Please complete the online access request form if you would like to register for these services.
