Patient medical data is being shared more frequently amongst clinicians (for example, between GP surgeries and community nurses). Sharing this data helps clinicians access the most up-to-date information when caring for patients. 

The systems we operate require that any sharing of medical information is consented to by patients beforehand.

Patients must consent to:

• their health data being shared out to other health providers
• other health providers accessing their medical data

Making an informed decision on how your data is shared allows you to control your personal medical data. For example, it may be necessary to share data held in GP practices with community nurses but the local podiatry department would not need to see this information to undertake their work. In this case, a patient could consent to the GP surgery sharing their data out to the community nurses, but not allow the local podiatry department to access their information. In this way, access to patient data is under patient's control and can be shared on a 'need to know' basis.

Sharing data for research and planning

You can choose if data from your health record is shared for research and planning. To find out more, click here.

You can view your medical record via the NHS App. For more information, please click here.

For more information, please click here.