Do hospital specialists have access to your GP records?

[BG2015]

Collected some medication from the hospital respiratory team yesterday and mentioned that I was on antibiotics, the asthma nurse said she knew.

So I just wondered if they'd seen it on the computer and whether the two systems are linked?

They seemed to when my mother was in hospital with pneumonia last Christmas. I had phoned to check that they were aware of certain things and they already were. They said they had already spoken to her GP and had access to the records.

They can see a very small summary such as meds.

Depends on the hospital and GP concerned. The summary care record is generally shared which will have active meds and allergies etc
They probably won't have sight of the consultation notes from all the appts

Not in my experience. I think they are able to in some places but they don't seem to, or else I never have joined up care. I go to hospital appointments and have to recite all medications I am on when they should clearly know this. And go over my entire history.

You would think in this amazing age of technology they could be able to link these systems

Not here - absolutely no linking of records whatsoever - you have to collect letters/blood tests/results yourself, scan them and send as email to either the GP or the hospital so they each have a copy! It's crazy.

Ime they say they can be but it is not always the case.

Lack of joined up IT systems is a huge issue for the NHS. Some info may be available across services, but primary care use different systems than hospitals.

Yes they can access them. I saw my consultant last week and he asked about medications then looked up my GP records on his computer

Depends which NHS system they are on. Some are able to see everything, others a summary. A joined up system all over would be great but very unlikely to happen with the cost implications.

When I went to A&E on one occasion recently the hospital doctors asked me about meds I was on that they would only know from my gp records so I assume yes.

Depends if your local area electronic record is linked to my hospital system. If your GP is within this trust area, I can see your current and previous prescriptions and a summary of your medical history and referrals, but nothing in details, and some other trusts too if they use the same electronic records system. other trusts, I cant see a thing and patients look at me like Im stupid if I ask what medication theyre taking “haven’t you got that on record?“

It depends on the Trust. I work in IT at a hospital. Some hospitals can access GP records (ours can), some can’t yet. There is a drive to get everything integrated but it will take years.

Good point that Yorkshire Dolls makes. Its locally based too, so if you visit a hospital away from your local area then its unlikely they will see details of your meds.

Yep but when they propose to do anything to address this, the general population through data sharing get all spooked about their data being sold to US mega corps when in reality mostly we just need data to flow through the system a bit better.

The NHS spent 6billion on a Fujitsu computer system which didn't work, that's some twenty years ago, do not know what it could cost now.

Hah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah! I flipping wish!

I work in a community Trust - we are not on the same records system that most of the acute trusts, GPs and ambulance service use around here. We can see very very minimal information on our Health and Social Care Portal depending on what the GP or Hospital have set up to share and how efficient they are at actually using it. Usually I can see things like repeat medication and some diagnoses, but often there's fuck all on it and I end up having to ring GP surgeries (and sit in the same hold queue as everyone else). Hospital wise - again, we might be able to see some clinic letters on there but that's even more hit and miss than info from GPs.

It is the bane of my fucking life.

The allied health services in our area are contracted out including the Minor Injuries clinic and community team. None of their records are exchanged even with gp.

Well they're now spending another £450 million so that the NHS system can record which gender(s) we wish to be identified by. At least they've got their priorities right!

Locally, it seems to be getting better streamlined but some departments are not linked in yet.

I assume you mean Epic as saw it mentioned on another thread. The NHS as a whole is not buying Epic, it's just individual trusts or possibly groups of trusts in the same area. It would be a nightmare to try to implement it for the whole NHS (and would cost a huge amount more than £450 million)