Patient Online is an

NHS England NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the ...

programme to encourage GPs deliver the British government’s promise to give patients in England access to their GP records and to let them book appointments and order prescriptions online. Patients have been able to book online appointments since at least 2009. Dr Amir Hannan pioneered record access for patients when he took over

Harold Shipman Harold Frederick Shipman (14 January 1946 – 13 January 2004), known by the public as Doctor Death and to acquaintances as Fred Shipman, was an English general practitioner and serial killer. He is considered to be one of the most prolif ...

's practice. Since March 2015 95% of practices have been in a position to offer these services but progress has been generally slow. EMIS Health reported in 2013 that more than 385,000 patients were using their online access software, an increase of 40% over the previous year.

Jeremy Hunt Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 14 October 2022. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport ...

gave practices a 2015 deadline to roll out online access, but the deadline passed without very much progress. Dr Masood Nazir, of Our Health Partnership, who is the national clinical lead, won the NHS Chief Clinical Information Officer's award for clinical informatics leadership in October 2016. According to Dr Nazir practices see the advantages of offering prescription services online, but appointment booking is a bit harder and access to records is “much harder” because there are real issues with making sure that no inappropriate information is revealed. In September 2016 1.4 million prescriptions and 1.2 million appointments were being booked in England each month; 70% more than September 2015. He wants every

Clinical Commissioning Group Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were NHS organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to organise the delivery of NHS services in each of their local areas in England. On 1 July 2022 they were abolished and replaced by Integra ...

to have a Chief Clinical Information Officer to drive forward local digital strategies. The

General medical services General medical services (GMS) is the range of healthcare that is provided by general practitioners (GPs or family doctors) as part of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. The NHS specifies what GPs, as independent contractors, are e ...

contract makes it clear that practices have to help anyone who wants it to sign up for patient-facing services. The

Care Quality Commission The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England. I ...

proposes to assess how GPs and GP out-of-hours services are making use of technology to ‘ensure timely access’ for patients under a new assessment framework from October 2017. According to the

Nuffield trust The Nuffield Trust, formerly the Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust, is a charitable trust with the mission of improving health care in the UK through evidence and analysis. The Nuffield Trust is registered with the Charity Commission as char ...

"the impact of patient-facing technology on the NHS is still unclear." Their report suggests that it can improve care for patients and reduce strain on the stretched health service – particularly for people with long-term conditions such as diabetes or

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. The main symptoms include shortness of breath and a cough, which may or may not produce ...

, but they are concerned that digital technology could increase demand for services, disengage staff and potentially disrupt the way that patients access care. Dr Brian Fisher claims that online record access is safer, especially for those with long term conditions, because patients can share their information with other providers, improves trust, improves compliance with medical advice, and saves time by reducing the demand for appointments and telephone calls. See also

Patient record access in the United Kingdom Patient record access in the United Kingdom has developed most fully in respect of the GP record, because computerisation in that field is almost universal. British hospitals were slower to move into electronic records. From 1 April 2015 all GP pra ...

References

External links

Patient Online{{cite web, title=Patient Online, url=https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/pe/patient-online/#, website=NHS England, accessdate=28 December 2016 Electronic health records National Health Service (England) Primary care