Can a private doctors access NHS medical records, and vice versa?
NHS records are not accessible to anyone outside of the NHS, and likewise, private medical records cannot be accessed by NHS services.
Private doctors are only allowed to share your data with your consent, or only in exceptional circumstances (if your health/wellbeing was at risk).
This lack of communication can lead to medical errors. So it is important you act as ‘go between’ passing your information both ways.
However, communication between private doctors, the NHS, and you, should improve – if the following happens.
On 21.10.24, Health Secretary Wes Streeting MP announced plans to introduce portable medical records (‘patient passports’), which will mean that every NHS patient will have their medical information stored in a single place.
The digital data bill will standardise information systems across the NHS, making it possible to share electronic records across all parts of the service, and bringing them together in a single patient record on the NHS app.
Streeting moved to allay patients’ fears over ‘big brother’ oversight of private records, saying that they would be “protected and anonymised” as the government pursued new technological opportunities.
The new Digital Data Bill will standardise information systems across the NHS, making it possible to share electronic records across all NHS trusts in England.
These portable medical records, known as patient passports, will contain health data that can be accessed quickly and easily by GPs, hospitals and ambulance services.
And you should have the right to pass the information to private doctors. Whether the reverse can happen is unclear.
