IT developments “Statement of Intent”

New 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:

1. Referral management

All practices must include the NHS Number as the primary identifier in all NHS clinical correspondence issued by the practice. Minchinhampton Surgery has been doing this for a number of years.

2. Electronic appointment booking

Practices are required to promote and offer the facility for all patients, who wish to, to book, view, amend, cancel and print appointments online. We currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments on- line.

3. Online ordering 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 ordering repeat prescriptions on-line.

4. Your Summary Care Record (SCR)

Practices are required to enable successful automated uploads of any changes to a patient’s summary information, at least on a daily basis to the Summary Care record. Having your Summary Care Record available will help anyone treating you without your full medical record. They will have access to information about any medication you may be taking and any drugs that you have a recorded allergy or sensitivity to. Minchinhampton Surgery is already live with SCR. However, if you do not want your medical records to be available in this way then you will need to let us know so that we can update your record.

To find out more information about Summary Care Records please visit the NHS website.

5. 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. Minchinhampton Surgery confirms that GP2GP transfers are already active for transfers of patient records to and from all clinical systems.

6. Patient access to their online 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.

If you wish to, you can now ask for access to look at your medical record online. Being able to see your record online, might help you to manage your medical conditions. Access to your record from anywhere in the world may be helpful should you require medical treatment on holiday. If you decide not to join or wish to withdraw, this is your choice and practice staff will continue to treat you in the same way as before. Your unique login will ensure that only you are able to access your record – unless you choose to share your details with a family member or carer.

The practice has the right to remove online access for anyone that doesn’t use it responsibly. It will be your responsibility to keep your login details and password safe and secure. If you know or suspect that your record has been accessed by someone that you have not agreed should see it, then you should change your password immediately. If you can’t do this for some reason, please contact the practice so that they can remove online access until you are able to reset your password. If you print out any information from your record, it is also your responsibility to keep this secure. If you are at all worried about keeping printed copies safe, we recommend that you do not make copies at all.