Following the introduction of Patient Record Access by Dr Amir Hannan over six years ago, Haughton Thornley Medical Centre patients have pioneered internet access to their full GP held record. This means that patients who are registered to use the service can access their health records anywhere and any time that they have internet access. The Practice has since gone on to recruit several hundred patients for this purpose.
Initially, Dr Hannan held meetings once a week at the Practice where patients wanting to access their medical records were invited to a presentation on what Records Access entails, what the possible benefits are, a summary of some of the issues and locally how we are trying to overcome them.
One important aspect of the introduction of Record Access is the local Care Record Development Board which advised clinicians, patients and the local health and social care organisations on aspects of “records access”. One of our Haughton Thornley patients, Yvonne Bennett, then also began to give presentations on “Records Access” from a patient’s perspective.
Up to 20 patients attended each of the meetings where there was an opportunity to raise questions. Following each meeting, patients were invited to sign up for records access after giving due consideration. This approach was generally well received and helped us all to gain confidence in the process. Most importantly it helped Dr Hannan and the other partners at the Practice to identify the main issues and also how they could best be resolved.
One challenge the Practice faced was trying to accommodate the number of patients who wished to attend the introductory meeting and for Dr Hannan himself to be sufficiently available to present to an ever growing number of patients who wished to access their records. In an attempt to try to stream-line the process and enable patients to access the information at a time of their choosing and in the comfort of their own home, Dr Hannan produced a DVD. Patients were themn invited to take the DVD home to watch the different chapters on their TV sets. Following this, they were asked to complete a short questionnaire which ensured that they had considered the issues and felt comfortable with going ahead and signing up for the Record Access service.
The videos that were produced are now available from the internet (see links below) and are hosted on You Tube for our patients and anyone interested in Record Access to watch at any time.
The following page lists all the videos that can now be viewed. Each video lasts up to 6 minutes and can be viewed as many times as you like. Click on the video and after a brief pause a new window should open with You Tube and the video should automatically play. Please note: Sometimes you have to click on the play button if it does not start automatically.
After you have watched the videos and read the other material on this website, you may be in a position to complete the questionnaire which you can download from this website and return it back to the practice. Your answers will then help us to determine what the next steps ought to be. The partners experience so far is that most people are eligible for accessing their medical records so long as they understand the issues and are willing to accept the potential risks as well as the benefits.
Note to individuals who are not patients of Haughton Thormley Medical Centres
If your practice does not offer records access and you are based in the UK then please ask your GP to get in touch with Dr Hannan if you feel they would be interested in understanding more about our experiences here at Haughton Thornley Medica Centres.
Other information on Record Access
If you live outside the UK or would like to know more then please see www.icmcc.org and click on “Records Access”. Also click on “Blog” to see the world’s first blog for members of the public, patients, clinicians, people in the system and system suppliers and see what others are saying about this topic. Alternatively you can go directly to www.patientra.co.uk. The Record Access collaborative are keen to enable patients and others to write about their views and experiences of Records Access so that more people can benefit in the future.