eDSM (Enhanced Data Sharing Model)
Today, electronic records are kept in all the places where you receive healthcare. These NHS Care Services can usually only share information from your records by letter, email, fax or phone.
At times, this can slow down your treatment and mean information is hard to access.
Here at Larwood Health Partnership, we use a computer system called SystmOne that allows the sharing of full electronic records across different NHS Care Services.
We are telling you about this as you have a choice to make about how we share information about your care from your electronic patient record.
You can choose to share or not to share your electronic GP record with other NHS Care Services.
So, what are the benefits of you sharing your health care record?
Faster access to your medical information
Patient care can be supported by healthcare staff much more easily.
You may not be required to repeat information to different NHS staff treating you. For example, healthcare staff who are involved in your care will be able to access your medical history immediately, enabling them to plan your care more efficiently.
We are now moving to an ‘OPT OUT’ model, which means your records will automatically be shared with other healthcare professionals unless you ‘OPT OUT’.
This means that your information will be available to healthcare professionals outside the practice that are providing care to you for example Out of hours, district nurses, community matrons.
If you are not in a position to give consent, they will make a clinical decision as to whether it is in your best interests for them to access this information.
If any other healthcare professionals feel it appropriate to look at your GP records, they should always ask for your consent.
The information they need may be your allergies / sensitivities or your current repeat medications.
For more information about information sharing please pick up a leaflet and consent form from reception.
Care Data
How information about you helps us to provide better care.
Confidential information from your medical records can be used by the NHS to improve the services offered so we can provide the best possible care for everyone.
This information along with your postcode and NHS number (but not your name) is sent to a secure system where it can be linked to other health information. This allows those planning NHS services or carrying out medical research to use information from different parts of the NHS in a way that does not identify you.
If you are happy for your information to be used in this way you do not have to do anything. If you have any concerns or wish to prevent this from happening, please speak to practice staff or ask at reception for a copy of the leaflet ‘How information about you helps us to provide better care’.
More information can be found here www.nhs.uk/caredata.
Amending My Record
Health and care organisations make every effort to keep your records accurate. However, occasionally information may need to be amended about you or your care.
If you think that the health or care information in your records is factually inaccurate, you have a legal right to ask for your records to be amended. For instance, you can ask for your home address to be changed because you moved house. You may also ask for something you feel has been inaccurately recorded, such as a diagnosis, to be corrected. However, it may not be possible to agree to your request.
A request can be made either by speaking to staff or in writing. You may need to provide evidence of the correct details, for example proof of address or change of surname after marriage. The organisation will then consider the request and consult with the person responsible for entering/providing the information. Where organisations agree to make a change, they should make it as soon as practically possible, but in any event within one month. If the person responsible for entering/providing the information has since left the Practice, it may not be possible to amend the information, but the Practice will be able to record a comment or entry in the record to show that you disagree with the content and what you think it should say.
Sometimes, you may disagree with information written in your record, but the information could still be factually correct. For example, you may disagree with a diagnosis you were given in the past. Whilst you can still ask the organisation to amend the entry that you feel is inaccurate, an organisation should not change it if the health and care professional believes it is factually correct. There are exceptions to this, for example, where there is a court order.
In cases where all parties agree that the information is inaccurate, it may still be necessary to retain the information. For example, health and care professionals may have taken the information into consideration when making decisions about treatment or care. This information would therefore be needed to justify and explain health and treatment decisions or to audit the quality of care received. Again, in these circumstances you can request for a comment or entry to be made in the record to show that you disagree with the content and what you think it should say.
If you are unhappy with the decision of a health or care organisation to retain information you wish to have deleted there are some steps you can take. In the first instance, you can make a formal complaint through that organisation’s complaints process. If you are unhappy with the outcome of that process then you might consider making a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) or consider legal action.
If the information you wish to be amended has been made by a different service and not your GP Practice you will need to contact that specific service.