Patient Record

SHARING YOU MEDICAL RECORDS

 

 

Increasingly, patient medical data is shared e.g. between GP surgeries and the hospital, 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 hospital 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.

 

THE GM CARE RECORD

 

 

The GM Care Record: a vital digital resource that improves health and care services and save lives.

The GM Care Record brings together your information from NHS and care services across all 10 Greater Manchester boroughs, so that your latest health information can be accessed by frontline health and care workers, wherever you are. An incredible resource, the GM Care Record ensures a smooth transition of care between each health and care professional in different NHS and care services. It means GPs, doctors, nurses and care practitioners can deliver the safest and most effective care for you, without you having to repeat your story.

The information in the GM Care Record helps us understand the answers to some of the most pressing health questions affecting our region, such as those related to COVID-19. That’s because de-personalised data, i.e. health and care information whereby your name, NHS number and address has been removed, will be used for highly selective and world-leading research at Greater Manchester universities. So far, the approved studies are limited to those that tackle specific topics related to how different groups within our regions’ 2.8 million citizens have been affected by COVID-19.

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Emergency Care Summary

There is a Central NHS Computer System called the Emergency Care Summary (ECS). The Emergency Care Summary is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. It will contain information on 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 an Emergency Care Summary to be made for you, tell your GP surgery. Don’t forget that if you do have an Emergency Care Summary, you will be asked if staff can look at it every time they need to. You don’t have to agree to this.