GP Online Services

Information for Patients

From 18th October 2023 everyone aged 16 and over can access their GP surgery online. You can do this when it suits you, using your smartphone, tablet or computer. All patients in England can use this service if they want to.

You will still be able to phone us or speak to a care navigator at our front desk. Online access is another option to make things easier.

What can you do with GP online services?

• Check your test results, for example, blood tests.
• Check medicines you are taking or have taken in the past.
• Check if you have an allergy that may affect what medication you can take.
• Look at what vaccinations you have had. It’s useful when you are going on holiday, changing schools, going to university or starting a new job.
• If you have a long term condition, you can check what the doctor told you to do when you last saw them, to make sure you are doing the right things to manage your condition.

How can you get it?

The surgery will need to check who you are, to make sure only you see your record. This is how it works:

• Contact the surgery and tell a care navigator that you would like to start using online services.
• You’ll need two IDs: One that shows your face, such as a passport or driving licence and another one, such as: a secondary or higher education certificate, a bank or utilities statement.

If you don’t have ID, it doesn’t mean you can’t use online services. Speak to the reception team and they will be able to help you register another way.

• The surgery will give you a form to fill in and sign. There may also be a short delay while your surgery sets up your online access. 
• We will then give you a letter with your username, and password so you can log in and start using online services. Remember to keep the letter safe and don’t just leave it lying around. 
• Occasionally we may decline patient access to online services. If we do, we will discuss the reasons with you.

Important Information About Online Access

You should not share your username and password with anyone. Your GP information is important and private, so you should keep it safe and secure. If you use a computer that other people also use, such as at the library, at school or at home, make sure other people can’t see what you are looking at on the computer screen. Make sure you log out when you finish looking at your information, so that no one else can see it or change your password without you knowing. Make sure your password is not remembered by the website either. If you think someone may be looking at your private info without your permission tell the surgery straight away. The staff can turn off the online access and restart it by giving you a new PIN and password. For more information on how you can protect your GP online information, read the Protecting your GP online records guide.

On rare occasions, you may see your test results before your doctor has commented or spoken to you about them, for example, when you can’t contact your surgery because it’s closed. You will need to wait until you can see their comments or talk to your own doctor. We have a list of the comments that a clinician may make when reviewing your results with an explanation of what these mean for you. This can be found in the online access section of our website.

If any of your online information is not correct, you should tell the surgery. You may see things that you did not know were in your GP record. If this happens and you find it upsetting please contact us. If you see someone else’s information in your online record, log out immediately and tell us as soon as possible. You can choose another person to share your online information with, such as a relative or spouse. If you want to do this, speak to the surgery and they may be able to allow the person you choose to have their own login details to look at your information (this is called proxy access).

What to do if you have problems with the service?

If you lose or forget your login details, go to the website you use to login and click the ‘forgotten details’ button, then follow the instructions. Contact the surgery if you are having problems or use the website's help button.

Proxy Access

Health and care records are confidential so you can only access someone else's records if you're authorised to do so.

To access someone else's health records, you must:

• be acting on their behalf with their consent, or
• have legal authority to make decisions on their behalf (power of attorney)

Patients unable to give consent

If a person does not have the mental capacity to manage their own affairs and you are their attorney, you can apply for access to their health and care records.

This would apply, for example, if you have a Lasting Power of Attorney with authority to manage their property and affairs.

The same applies to a person appointed to make decisions about such matters by the Court of Protection in England and Wales.

Accessing children's records

A person with parental responsibility will usually be entitled to access the records of a child who is aged 11 or younger. 

Children aged 12 or older are usually considered to have the capacity to give or refuse consent to parents requesting access to their health records, unless there is a reason to suggest otherwise.

Once a child turns 12 proxy access is automatically switched off, but may be reinstated if the child, their parent and their usual GP all feel that it is in the child’s best interests for proxy access to continue.

Common abbreviations you may see in your medical record:

Abbreviations you may find in your health records - NHS App help and support

More information about accessing your medical record:

Seeing your medical records - The Patients Association