GPC England continues to support patients taking a proactive role in the management of their own  health. This could be facilitated through access to a patient’s own electronic health records.

Following the imposition of the 2023/24 GMS contract, the Accelerated Access to Records  Programme is currently scheduled to go live for all patients on 1 November 2023. From that date,  patients in England will be given prospective access to information entered into their GP record.

However, GPC England believe there are patient safety and information governance concerns that  remain outstanding, and which need to be addressed. For this programme to be successful and fulfil its potential they believe it should not be rolled out in a ‘big bang’ style on 1 November. Practices need to be given the appropriate time and resources to safely plan this in each practice across  England, and GPCE continue to press for this as well as further modifications.

Rollout datesWe are aware that EMIS have shared training dates to facilitate their ‘bulk upload’ and they are  encouraging EMIS practices to use the new functionality which has been paid for by NHS England. Earlier this year, many practices wrote to system suppliers to turn this functionality off. 

GPCE will publish comprehensive advice and guidance for all practices and will continue to set out  concerns and solutions to Government ministers. They will also be engaging with EMIS and TPP to  ascertain how they can best support GPs with respect to bulk uploads in the lead up to and after the proposed switch on date.