About Your Medical Records

Your medical records are an important way of helping us provide medical care.  You and your medical records describe how we use and protect your records.

The computer system we are using to keep your medical records is called SystmOne.  It is used by a number of other medical services locally.  We ask your explicit consent to allow other healthcare professionals who treat you using SystmOne to see the records we make and for us to see the records that they make.  We feel this helps support the continuity of your medical care, but we can only do this with your explicit consent.

Share Out Share In With SystmOne

We are requesting your consent to allow healthcare professionals at Queens Medical Centre and other healthcare professionals who are treating you to share and have access to your medical records, and to help ensure you receive safe, effective and efficient care.

Your medical records are an important part in helping ensure you receive safe, effective and efficient care.  With our computer system it is possible for other healthcare professionals treating you who are using the same system (for example the emergency doctor that might see you out of hours) to see the medical records made by us and for us to see the medical records they make.  We think this is valuable and will help to ensure the continuity of your care, but we need your consent to do this.

Your consent is necessary for two reasons - to share out and to share in.

Sharing out would mean that we would make your medical records available for other healthcare professionals to see.  However, they would need to ask your consent to see them when they are treating you.  Hence, this does not mean that any healthcare professional could see your records but only those who are treating you and only then with your consent.

Sharing in would allow us to see the medical records made by other health care professionals you have seen, if you have consented for them to make their records available.

Healthcare professionals will only look at information that is relevant to the treatment they are giving.  In addition, you can withdraw your consent to share out or share in at any time in the future.

We believe giving your consent to share out and to share in will help us facilitate your safe, effective and efficient medical care.  If you are happy with this, please ask at reception for the appropriate form to complete.  

If you are happy to consent to Share Out Share In so that other healthcare professionals directly involved in your care who also use SystmOne can see your medical records, please let us know.

This is not the same as the Summary Care Record or Care Data.  There is more information about these on this website.  It is assumed that you consent to these unless you specifically opt out.  You can download the necessary forms to opt out on the relevant pages of this website and then hand them in at the reception

The NHS Care Record Guarantee gives you more information regarding your medical records and is available via the Health and Social Care Information Centre and can be accessed via the following link here.

For more information on how your medical information is shared within Leeds, click here.

Care Data

Information about you and the care you receive is shared in a secure system by healthcare staff to support your treatment and care.

It is important that we, the NHS, can use this information to plan and improve services for all patients.  We would like to link information from all the different places where you receive care, such as your GP, hospital and community service to help us provide a full picture.  This will allow us to compare the care you received in one area against the care you received in another so we can see what has worked best.

Information such as your postcode and NHS number, but not your name, will be used to link your records in a secure system, so your identity is protected.  Information which does not reveal your identity can then be used by others, such as researchers and those planning health services, to make sure we provide the best care possible for everyone.

You have a choice.  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 download the opt-out form below, complete it and return it to the practice

We need to make sure that you know this is happening and the choices you have.

Click here for information on how information about you helps us provide you with better care.  

Click here for frequently asked questions.

Click here for opt out form.

Summary Care Record

There is a central NHS computer system called the Summary Care Record (SCR).  The Summary Care Record is meant to help emergency doctors and nurses help you when you contact them when the surgery is closed.  Initially, it will contain just your medications and allergies.

Later on, as the central NHS computer system develops, other staff who work in the NHS will be able to access it along with information from hospitals, out of hour's services and specialists letters that may be added as well.

Your information will be extracted from practices such as ours and held on central NHS databases. 

As with all new systems there are pros and cons to think about.  When you speak to an emergency doctor you might overlook something that is important and if they have access to your medical record it might avoid mistakes or problems, although, even then, you should be asked to give your consent each time a member of NHS staff wishes to access your record, unless you are medically unable to do so.

On the other hand you may have strong views about sharing your personal information and wish to keep your information at the level of this practice.  NHS Digital, the government agency responsible for the Summary Care Record, have agreed with doctors’ leaders that new patients registering with this practice should be able to decide whether or not their information is uploaded to the central NHS computer system.  For existing patients it is different in that it is assumed that you want your record uploaded to the central NHS computer system unless you actively opt-out.

For further information visit the NHS Digital website here.

If you choose to opt-out of the scheme then you will need to complete a form and bring it along to the surgery.