One in six GPs have not heard of new Government data legislation, which will mean providing personal data for free from 25 May.
According to a survey of 1,018 UK GPs, 15% of GPs have not heard of the incoming General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This figure was lower for GP partners, only 9% of whom had not heard of the new regulations.
The GDPR, which comes into force on 25 May, mean practices will have to provide a free electronic copy of a patient’s data, instead of charging fees of up to £50 per ‘subject access request’, despite GPs estimating that the requests can cost practices up to £80 a time.
The survey by research provider medeConnect found that the top implication of the legislation for GPs was more work, with 26% of respondants saying this would be the case.
Another 17% said the regulations would mean extra costs and a loss of earnings for GPs, with just 1% saying GDPR is a positive move.
Fewer than half of GPs had discussed it within their practice or primary care organisation, with just over a quarter of those who had discussed it saying the burden would fall to them to be responsible for GDPR implementation.
This comes after GP leaders said at the most recent LMCs conference that the new data protection regulations are too onerous and practices should be offered protection and funding to deal with its ‘unintended consequences’.
