Accessing your medical details

GP records include information about your medicine, allergies, vaccinations, previous illnesses and test results, hospital discharge summaries, appointment letters and referral letters. You can access your GP records, and nominate someone you trust to access them by contacting us directly or through GP online services like NHS App. More information about GP online services on the NHS website: Visit GP online services.

If you’ve registered with us, you’ll have a Summary Care Record unless you’ve chosen not to have one. It contains basic information including your allergies, medicines and any reactions you’ve had to medicine in the past. During the coronavirus outbreak, you will also have extra information added to your record. This includes significant medical history (past and present), reasons for medicines, care plan information and vaccinations. You cannot get your Summary Care Record online. If you’d like to see it, please contact us.

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 the legal authority to make decisions on their behalf (power of attorney), or
• have another legal basis for access

A request for someone’s health and care records should be made directly to The Surgery. This is known as a Subject Access Request (SAR), as set out by the Data Protection Act of 2018.

⁽¹⁾To request this directly from The Surgery, please download the SAR form (there are two versions: PDF or Word), fill it in on paper or electronically and send it:

• by post to: Severn View Family Practice, Thornbury Health Centre, Eastland Rd, Thornbury, Bristol BS35 1DP, or
• by email to: Bnssg.severn.view.admin@nhs.net

We can refuse to supply some of your requests if, for example:

• it is likely to cause serious harm to the physical or mental health of any individual
• the information you have asked for contains information that relates to another person

If your request is rejected or you have a complaint about the process, you can complain to Susan Bryan our Practice Manager. If you are still not satisfied, you can make a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

If a person does not have the mental capacity to manage their own affairs and you are their attorney, you will have the right to 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.

A person with parental responsibility will usually be entitled to access the records of a child who is aged 12 or younger. Children aged 13 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.

Although British Medical Association guidance says that every reasonable effort must be made to encourage the child to involve parents or guardians. Read more information about accessing someone else’s records.

If you think your health record is incorrect, you should let us know and we will help you to update it.