Orchard Medical Practice has signed the National Data Sharing Arrangement (NDSA) for GP connect. GP Connect helps clinicians gain access to GP patient records during interactions away from a patient’s registered practice and makes their medical information available to appropriate health and social care professionals when and where they need it, to support the patient’s direct care.
From a privacy, confidentiality and data protection perspective, GP Connect provides a method of secure information transfer and reduces the need to use less secure or less efficient methods of transferring information, such as email or telephone.
GP Connect – key points.
- GP Connect can only be used for direct care purposes.
- Individuals can opt out of their GP patient record being shared via GP Connect by contacting their GP practice.
- Access to GP Connect is governed by role-based access control (RBAC) and organisational controls; only people who need to see the GP patient record for a patient’s direct care should be able to see it
- All systems that allow the use of GP Connect must undergo a robust compliance process and the organisations involved must sign a connection agreement holding them to high standards of information security.
GP Connect products can help health and social care professionals share, view or act on information that could be required for a patient’s direct care, but they would otherwise have difficulty accessing easily (for example if they are using different IT systems).
Organisations can have access to relevant information in GP patient records to provide direct care to patients only.
Type of organisations that use GP Connect
Examples of organisations that may wish to use GP connect to view GP patient records include:
- GP surgeries that patients are not registered at – for example, if they need to see a doctor when they are away from home
- secondary care (hospitals) if they need to attend A&E or are having an operation
- GP hubs/primary care networks (PCNs)/integrated care systems (ICSs), partnerships between healthcare providers and local authorities
- local ‘shared care‘ record systems
- ambulance trusts, so paramedics can view GP patient records in an emergency
- healthcare professionals such as community services
- acute and emergency care service providers
- NHS 111
- pharmacies
- optometrists
- dentistry
- mental health trusts
- hospices
- adult and children’s social care
- care and nursing homes
All access to your GP patient record is stored within an audit trail at your GP practice and within the organisation that information has been shared with.