Accelerating Patient Access to their GP-held Records

Guidance for patients and service users

As of November 2022, patients with online accounts (such as through the NHS App) will be able to read new entries in their health records.

Watership Down Health makes every effort to keep your records accurate. However, occasionally information may need to be amended about you or your care.

If you think that the health or care information in your records is factually inaccurate, you have the legal right to ask for your records to be amended. For instance, you can ask for your home address to be changed because you moved house. You may also ask for something you feel has been inaccurately recorded, such as a diagnosis, to be corrected. However, it may not be possible to agree to your request.

Any patient who wishes to make any amendments to their medical record whilst at Watership Down Health are requested to submit the request via our Web Site at (www.watershipdownhealth.com) or by letter. Please note that we are not able to process any requests for medical records to be changed by telephone, text or email.

You may need to provide evidence of the correct details, for example proof of address or change of surname after marriage. Watership Down Health will then consider the request. Where Watership Down Health agrees to make a change, we agree to do this as soon as practically possible, but in any event within one month of us agreeing to make the change. If a more complex review needs to take place we will confirm the timescale for a review to take place.

Sometimes, you may disagree with information written in your record, but the information could still be factually correct. For example, you may disagree with a diagnosis you were given in the past. Whilst you can still ask Watership Down Health to amend the entry that you feel is inaccurate, we may not be able to change it if the health and care professional consulting with you at the time believes it is factually correct. There are exceptions to this, for example, where there is a court order.

In cases where all parties agree that the information is inaccurate, it may still be necessary to retain the original information. For example, health and care professionals may have taken the information into consideration when making decisions about treatment or care. This information would therefore be needed to justify and explain health and treatment decisions or to audit the quality of care received.

You can, however, request for a comment or entry to be made in the record to show that you disagree with the content and what you think it should say. This is particularly important if you disagree with something when you were at a different practice as it will not be practicable to follow this up with a previous surgery.

If you are unhappy with the decision made by Watership Down Health to retain information you wish to have deleted in the first instance, you can make a formal complaint in writing to Watership Down Health.

Further guidance can be found on the NHS England Web Site: www.england.nhs.uk – Patient information guides.