Sharing Your NHS Patient Data

BACK TO MAIN INDEX

Information sharing in the NHS is subject to rigorous regulation and governance to ensure your full identifiable and personal medical data is kept confidential and only ever seen by carefully vetted doctors, nurses and administrative staff responsible for overseeing your care.

With the development of information technology the NHS will increasingly be sharing key information from your GP medical notes with Out of Hours GP Services, Hospital A&E Units, Community Hospitals, Community Nurses all of whom may at various times in your life be looking after you. Sharing information can improve both the quality and safety of care you receive and in some cases can be vital in making lifesaving decisions about your treatment.

There are two different elements aimed at ensuring continuity and safety in your personal care:

• SCR = The NHS Summary Care Record
• EDSM = The Enhanced Data Sharing Model ‘SystmOne’

We ask you please to read the information on this page carefully and complete the relevant fields on the form overleaf, sign and return to us.

SCR: NHS Summary Care Record

The NHS Summary Care Record was introduced many years ago to help deliver better and safer care; it contains basic information about:

• Any allergies you may have
• Unexpected reactions to medications, and
• Any prescriptions you have recently received.

The intention of the SCR is to help clinicians in Hospital A&E Departments and GP ‘Out of Hours’ health services to give you safe, timely and effective treatment. Clinicians are only allowed to access your SCR record if they are authorised to do so and, even then, only if you give your express permission. You will be asked if healthcare staff can look at your Summary Care Record every time they need to, unless it is an emergency, for instance if you are unconscious. You can refuse if you think access is unnecessary.

Patients under 16 years have an NHS Summary Care Record created for them so if you are the parent or guardian of a child then please either make this information available to them or decide and act on their behalf.

EDSM: Enhanced Data Sharing Model (SystmOne)

Woodbury Surgery uses a computer system called SystmOne that gives your GP the facility to share your full electronic records across different NHS Care Services that are involved in your care. Allowing your GP to share your record in the ‘SystmOne’ database helps to deliver better and safer care for you. You can choose to share or not to share your electronic GP record with other NHS Care Services. If you chose todecline sharing you are able to determine if data is ‘shared out’ and/or ‘shared in’

• Sharing OUT controls whether information recorded at our GP practice can be shared with other NHS health care providers.
• Sharing IN determines whether or not our GP practice can view information in your record that has been entered by other NHS services who are providing care for you or who may provide care for you in the future (that you have consented to share out).

Please complete and sign the form below to detail your personal decisions regarding NHS patient data sharing.