Medical Records

Lancashire and South Cumbria has been chosen by NHS England to be a national pilot for the digitisation  of Medical Records. Scanning these papers based records and making them digital will enable better utilisation of space, creating more clinical space, staff areas, multi team space and video hubs, removing the need for some practices to build extensions. In addition it will also make your record more easily and speedily accessible to clinical staff with your practice.

Your complete GP medical record will be digital and stored in a secure cloud based clinical system (only accessible by your GP practice) with the paper based records being securely destroyed following secure destruction of confidential material. Your GP will still be able to access your records easily within the system. The scanning and destruction of the paper records will follow strict data protection guidelines adhered by the NHS. As with paper based records, digital records are stored for the duration specified  in the records management code of practice – see link below. For GP patient records, this states that they may be destroyed 10 years after the patient’s death if they are no longer needed.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/records-management-code-of-practice-for-health-and-social-care

If you wish to discuss this scheme, please inform the Practice with by letter or via e-mail at [email protected]