I seem to get a few queries about the functionality of Systmonline and the ability to access medical records.
Systmonline has, in line with the other GP platforms, the capability of giving this information. In fact it is a breach of the GMS GP contract if this is not available. As reported previously the only platform NOT currently able to give this information is VISION, this is being addressed.
The screenshot is from the systmonline online information found on this link
2. Practice staff do not have the technical understanding of how the system works or how to set it up.
3. Contract changes allowing access to digital historical access on request is listed in the Appendix of the GP contract and easily missed.
You have the right to see your online GP record.
All GP platforms except VISION can show historical and prospective records
If you have opposition/refusal there are steps you can take to resolve this
1. Print off the relevant page in the GP contract (screenshot in my last post) and take to the Practice Manager to discuss
2. Download the Evergreen Life App to Access your online GP account. They have a helpline and will often contact your GP surgery on your behalf to help with the technical set up
3. Patient Access also has an online help option in the technical section of the website
4. Contact PatientOnline, they have local digital champions who may act for you and visit surgeries to give demonstrations
5. Contact NHS England Complaints who will act for you as the Practice are in breech of their contract if they are refusing to give online medical record access
Perseverance is the name of the game. Do not be fobbed off by staff who give misinformation. Go armed with GP contract information and website information from the platforms.
I am currently campaigning for accessible information for patients stating their record access rights and giving the full information regarding the different GP platforms and the different Apps and how they work.
Do not give up. Good luck!
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DJR1
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I have had some contact with NHSX tonight on the difficulties some people experience accessing GP records.
“They are obligated by their NHS England contract to provide online access to a good chunk of your record. If a practice is not cooperating we can let our NHSX Empower the Person colleagues know to talk to the practice, use this form”
patientaccess.com/ This is the system my gp uses. It seems to not go back very many years. I'm still trying to figure out how to get a specialist report from the site.
My patient access goes back about 10 years. So I requested some records from the hospital I attended to get more information. I had to scan my passport and email it to them before they would send me the records. It was a complete waste of time because the Endocrinologists hand written notes were unreadable.
It is so frustrating. We have had similar experiences. Clinic summary letters from Consultant to the GP are usually a good source of information and typed if you can get hold of those.
I have got those but they are just what happened at my appointment with no blood results on them. The endo says things like " very depressed" and "she still blames her hair loss on her thyroid" which he disagrees with. Makes me angry just to read what he says about me.
It maybe the blood results were given to the GP. My sons endo copies them onto his clinic letters. If that is the case you will need to ask the hospital for a copy. You could write/email the Consultant with a Subject Access Request stating you would like a copy of ..... all notes or specific blood tests etc. There is no charge for this and they must respond within one month.
Hair loss is your thyroid......had this for years, GP tried to tell me it was hereditary hair loss. How could that be with no family history of female hair loss. Put on levothyroxine, grew back in 2 months. Do you have snapping, brittle fingernails and dry skin as well. All mine sorted out once medicated. Best wishes.
I can't actually read what a doctor has written. It will just say Osteopenia for example, you click on it and it takes you to a dictionary to explain the word!!
If you can’t read the account of what happened in a GP consultation I suspect you do not have full record access. You have to specifically request access to your historical is switched on for you.
From April this year all consultation detail FROM that date going forward should contain a summary of the consultation, so what was discussed, any advice given and treatment plan. You should be able to read this if you saw the GP after April. If you can’t see this detail the Practice have not updated their system setting in line with the GP contract.
It’s a pity the records aren’t made available online? Scans and notes can be stored digitally and hospital blood results are automised. I have also wondered why GPs don’t have access view hospital records, especially blood test results.
That’s rubbish about illegible hand writing. I wish to access my hospital records I’d be grateful who you addressed (I.e.) which department you asked for subject access request.
Hi if you look on the hospital website and look for information about “record access” or “Patient data” or Subject “Access Requests” you may find the right contact. We are just doing this and the London Hospital we are dealing with has its own separate unit for this and there is an online application form to submit with passport details for ID
Failing that phone the PALS-Patient Advice and Liaison Team and they will sometimes take your verbal request and act for you sending the records to you after appropriate ID
My GP is fobbing me off with very busy with Covid excuses. They barely see any patients right now, because they send them all to the hospital. I had access, when they accidentally put me on the Diabetics system (Not diabetic, by the way), then when they realised their mistake they switched it off.
I would keep pestering. I have had similar with a Subject Access Request from a hospital. It is your right to have historical records perhaps an email/ letter formally requesting access in line with the GMS contract 2020. This fixes a date and you can take it forward if necessary in the future.
I will, so important to see all results tests etc, written down and in full; to get a clear picture. After all, it is us that are managing our health conditions.
My Patient Access account only starts in 2015 as I moved from Cheshire to London. At that time it was not mandatory to forward the patients digital account. They just forwarded a paper copy of the computerised record with the old Lloyd George folder.
Some practices will look at the paper records and summarise any important diagnoses. This relies on the summarising clerk having sufficient understanding/training to realise the importance of your past history. Some practices will scan old paper records onto the system but this is rare I believe.
Consequently 55 years of my medical history is absent from my online record and my large four group practice stores all paper records in a storage facility off site so it is not available when I visit the GP. This is the shambles of GP medical records that the public are unaware of.
After 2016 it was written into the GP contract that all computerised records must be transferred by a system called GP2GP. Unfortunately the system had quite a low data transfer limit so in long complex records transfer failed because the file size was too big.
After 2017/8 updates to GP2GP enabled larger file sizes to be transferred.
Your limited history could be due to any of the above reasons but it is worth checking that the practice have not put a time limit on the initial set up as that is also possible.
In addition you need to check that the “Letters and Documents” section of Patient Access has been made visible to you by the Practice. That will be where a specialist report will be stored.
I've looked at that. It only goes back to 2019. It's very frustrating. They deliberately stop you reading about yourself and if you are not very bright you have no chance as it's so convoluted! In reply to the other thing about dates I avoid seeing the gp and haven't been for a fair while. In fact the last time was only so that they would continue issuing my HRT 😀
I made a request at my previous surgery more than once but nothing happened. I spoke to the practice manager a few times too and she said she would look in to it but again, no luck. I made a request at my new surgery a couple of weeks ago and I was sent a form to fill in. I returned this on Friday so I will see what happens but I am grateful for this information.
Don't let them fob you off because you have the legal right to see all your records and results. I am still trying to get "delusional" removed from my records from 10 years ago when I was suffering from untreated Graves' I still get angry every time I see the word on my online records! Don't be surprised to find some personal remarks made about you on your records because doctors did make them a few years ago. I think they are more careful what they write on them now because they know patients are able to read them.
I'm pretty sure that there will be some "interesting" remarks. I spent 20 years trying to discover what problems my daughter had because it was evident from a very young age that there was a problem. I have seen a couple of letters that were written by a psychiatrist which make it evident that not only did I cause the problems but when she was eventually diagnosed with an ASD I had succeeded in "getting the diagnosis because I knew the criteria". When you consider that my daughter refused to see this man and that I have never been a psychiatric patient there must be some interesting insights in to how any conclusions were drawn. However, I'm more interested in clearing up some obvious errors of my own. I saw a brief note of my medical conditions which leaves me in total despair. I apparently have Graves disease which I had for a brief period in the 1980's and I was later diagnosed with an underactive thyroid which I have been on medication for for many years. I also have kidney disease which I have never been told about and syncope which has also never been discussed with me.
On reflection, I guess that the psychiatric findings can still be withheld on the grounds that it could be dangerous to my health to see them. I won't ho;d my breath.
Yes exactly this! Subjective or personal remarks can be common and upsetting. Judgemental language and opinions are not acceptable and a more factual style of recording is now recommended. There will always be a level of paternalism evident in records and this is down to the individual GP.
Many years ago I had a number of visits to the GP as I was worried sick about my son. He wrote that I had acute anxiety syndrome. Shortly after my son was diagnosed with a large brain tumour. My concerns were valid.
That remark cannot be erased but an explanatory note can be added. Looking from a different perspective it would not be good if a GP could alter records easily all sorts of things could disappear if diagnoses were inadequate etc. A GP record is a legal document and cannot be erased.
However factual medical errors can be amended. For example when we started with a new GP, the summarising clerk picked 10 summary points from my son’s very complex 12 year history She put migraine down as a diagnosis on the Problem List/summary on Patient Access.
He had never suffered from Migraine his headaches were due to a brain tumour! I was worried if he saw a GP with a new headache the GP would see Migraine on the list and treat him for that.
Initially the GP refused to amend the list. However GDPR the European Data Regulation gives you the “Right to Rectification” we invoked that right to have the record amended as it was factually incorrect. It was another battle but the list was amended to our specification.
Unfortunately little can be done with GP’s personal opinions/subjective views I just take them with a pinch of salt and in some respects other Doctors with more training and understanding will see the comments as subjective and unreliable.
However it angers me that personal opinion can be recorded in this way and if I see this written after a consultation in future I will challenge it immediately.
Apologies I am not up to speed with the arrangements in Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is ahead of the game with a patient portal. My advice and battles! have been with NHS England and my advice relates to that.
Patient Access is not accurate either! I got a text message yesterday from my surgery to ask me to go into surgery for a blood test for my thyroid because my oncologists registrar has sent a letter to them to request it dates 22/9.
I rang them to say that I had a thyroid test on 4/9 and didn’t need one. The receptionist said she couldn’t find the letter (despite the fact that I had rung them within minutes of receiving the text) and said it must have been a mistake. Told her no mistake, the text I received mentioned a letter! Then she said when was your appointment. Told her 15/9. She said “oh it’s too soon to expect a letter”. I said “no, the text specifically said that the surgery has received a letter”. I was not happy that she couldn’t find the letter she said she would speak to the GP who received it and would call me back. I told her this has happened several time’s before.
The practice manager rang me back. They had received the letter but it had been logged on their system as being received on 15th of May 2019, because that’s the date that I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The Docman system had picked up that date in the body of the letter (the oncologist always shows this date in the subject title if the letter). They found 4 other letters that were filed on that date and the reason I didn’t know about them is that I had not been copied in to the letters.
They knew there was a problem with dates on another system but were unaware of this problem! The likelihood is that thousands of other patients records are incorrect too!
If I had just accepted being fobbed off by the receptionist they would never have known if this issue.
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