Patient records are extremely confidential and notes are only shared externally with those involved with the patients care e.g. hospital consultants.
Patients must give their consent if information is requested from other organisations e.g. insurance companies.
How to get your medical records
Medical records hold information about you. They are also sometimes called health records.
You’ll have separate records for any NHS service you go to including your GP surgery, hospital, dentist or opticians.
How to get your record depends on which record it is.
How to get your GP record
Your GP record includes information like any conditions or allergies you have and any medicine you’re taking.
Most patients will automatically be given access to more information added to their GP record from November 2022 onwards. This includes letters, test results and appointment notes.
Some people may also have access to information added to their GP record before this date.
You can access your GP record and nominate someone you trust to access it too.
Important information:
Some types of information are automatically uploaded to your medical record and there may be occasions when this is displayed before a clinician has had chance to review and discuss an outcome with the patient.
Patients will not be able to see all entries on their record. This is because some types of information that is entered by other health care professionals will not be visible on the online patient record.