Patients’ access to their electronic record: offer patients access as soon as you can

Abstract

The UK Treasury fired the starting gun for records access (RA) when it set a target: anyone who wants to should be able to have access to their electronic GP record by April 2015.1 IT suppliers now have this in their sights, and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has been steering the multiple stakeholders down the road to implementation.2 A number of factors have led to this stage. RA is no longer a technological problem: the technology has been available for some years. Thousands of patients in the UK and millions elsewhere have been using RA in various forms and the roof has not fallen in. Patient benefits, such as saving time, improved communication, and a sense of control over their health conditions, are becoming increasingly apparent. The government has become committed to open data as a means to growth. In addition the RCGP has issued guidance for clinicians.3 Despite the evidence and the optimism at the centre, GPs remain very reluctant to offer the service which is free to practices and patients in the UK. This article makes the case for GPs to offer RA as soon as their systems make it possible. The Francis report makes specific reference to RA,4 suggesting that poor care would have been more difficult to continue if patients and families had had real time access to their records. Accounts by patients using RA describe sharing their GP records with clinicians in secondary care in the UK and abroad.5 This must make care safer: ‘Access to my personal records is an excellent benefit both to myself and other medical specialists — in fact, information/ …