Around 55 million patients in England can now access their summary record information online, as well as booking appointments and repeat prescriptions, thanks to the ‘hard work’ of GP practices.
NHS England has announced that 97% of UK practices now offer at least an online summary record after a rapid increase in services going online at the start of the year to meet the 2014/15 GMS contract deadline in April.
Figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre showed that just 3% of practices offered online summary record access by April 2014, and with six months until the deadline the number still lingered at one fifth of practices.
NHS England’s director of digital technology Beverley Bryant today said: ’Many patients want the flexibility of booking services online so we are delighted that GPs have worked so hard to make this possible.
‘There is more to come as we develop services that will increasingly help patients take more control of their health.’
GPs will have to provide access to all coded information in the record by 31 March 2016 where patients request it and the practice sees it as clinically necessary, and NHS England hopes to give full record access by 2018.
