This Data sharing allows NHS organisations who are caring for you (e.g. hospitals, specialist consultants, or the community Nurses) to see your health record and / or record data which in turn your GP will able to see on our end. (Provided, their computer system supports this).  

Petworth Surgery allows data sharing as a default option with local NHS Care providers. It’s important to note that this is not something people can just look at, they need to be actively caring for you.

Should any other NHS care provider require access to your shared record, they must seek permission to view the record.

For example: If you need a visit from one of the community nurses, they will be able to see your health record and they are also able to add information to your record, so your GP can have a better overview of your care.

However if, let’s say, you are on holiday in Cornwall and you injure yourself and end up at the A&E of the local hospital they will have ask your permission (permission to view) to access your record for the period of time they actively provide care for you. 

The only exception to the “permission to view” is if you are unable to give consent for some reason, such as being unconscious, and a member of staff deems it medically necessary to access your record.  In this case, they can perform an override to access you notes, but they must state the reason why they are doing it. When this happens, an alert is also generated for the appropriate Caldicott Guardians to check that the access was appropriate.

Also it may be necessary to share data held in GP practices with, let's say, the district nurses but the local podiatry department would not need to see it to undertake their work. In this case, we will allow the podiatry department to share data they record, for you, with us, but they will not be able to see any part of your record held by the surgery.  patients would allow the surgery to share their data. 

If there are particular parts of your record that you would like to remain private, but you are happy to share the rest, then just inform your GP surgery of which items you would like to be private and they can mark them as so.

If you don’t want this sharing option to be enabled please let your surgery know so they can opt you out. You can always change your mind.

There is a new Central NHS Computer System called the Summary Care Record (SCR). The Summary Care Record is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed. The basic Summary Care Record is an electronic record of important patient information such as medication you’re on and what you’re allergic to. This is held centrally by the NHS and can only be accessed by authorised healthcare staff.

There is now an option to add “Additional Information” to your Summary Care Record.  This makes the Summary Care Record a much more useful source of information for departments like A&E and the Ambulance service if they need to treat you in an emergency.

The information that will be included in your Summary Care Record if you choose to add it is:

• Significant medical history (past and present)
• Reasons for medication
• Anticipatory care information (such as information about the management of long-term conditions)
• Communication preferences
• End of life care information
• Immunisations

A full list of the terms that will be included in this additional information is available here: 

https://digital.nhs.uk/services/summary-care-records-scr/additional-information-in-scr/additional-information-research-project-report/what-summary-care-records-are

Specific sensitive information like fertility treatments, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy terminations and gender reassignment will not be automatically included when the information is added.

If there are any particular items that you would like to be either included or excluded from your Summary Care Record, your GP surgery can mark these items for you in your health record.

As with all new 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. Connecting for Health (CfH), the government agency responsible for the Summary Care Record have agreed with doctors’ leaders that new patients registering with this practice should be able to decide whether or not their information is uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System.

For existing patients it is different in that it is assumed that you want your record uploaded to the Central NHS Computer System unless you actively opt out.

Additional Resources:
NHS Digital Summary Care Record information page