"GP Surgery Removing my Rights to View Medical Record"

I am raising a concern regarding the rights of NHS Patient's to have full access to their medical records if they wish to do so and why my GP with no real basis has decided to remove this access.

Patients’ used to have access to view their medical record to manage their healthcare. I have a range of chronic medical issues. I am under the care of several secondary care clinics and having information that I can view means that I do not have to waste my appointments’ going over what treatment I am having by showing them clinical letters that I printed out that I in one folder.

Patients have previously given permission to and had the right to log into the Patient Online Application to view medication, test results and letters (documents).

Many patients including me have been admitted to hospital and having information at hand about medication and clinical letters has helped to be given the correct care and treatment by paramedics and hospital staff. The one place that I could see all these clinical letters for all of care from various secondary care clinics was via my GP system.

On contacting my GP, I was informed that they had made the decision to no longer allow any patients to see their full medical record. This decision was not made with patient involvement and no prior notification or communication was relayed to patients about this. The surgery suggested that I was lucky to have been granted this privilege in the first place to see clinical letters and other documents and I found it very interesting that they also say that this decision would be reviewed quarterly and then they may or may not give patient's access back to see their full medical records.

I feel that if a patient is of sound mind, which I am, that I should be able to choose to share and view my full medical record. The government have spent considerable money and time into telling patients that they should take responsibility for their care. This should have meant shared records; one record one record and that patient demographic information was updated via the NHS Spine Portal. The big sell was about sharing patient records and allowing patients to grant permissions to share their records. I remember many years ago that all patients were sent information about sharing records.

I have consented and agreed many times to see my GP record and to share information with all my NHS care providers, instead I still have to go to different clinics and repeat over and over again what medication I am on and what treatment I am obtaining from all of the other services. This is because GP Surgeries will not share records with other services.

Under the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998 I should be treated as an individual and I feel that my GP is now hindering my care and treatment. I cannot understand how they can simply have a meeting and make decisions about my care without involving me. I am really upset about this and I now feel that there is no point in trying to manage my illness if I will no longer know what is happening with my treatment. In the past I have had to inform my surgery that my one of my consultants wanted me to take certain medication because I could read her letter myself, the surgery did not realise,

Without full access to my record (which I did have before) I feel that I will no longer be able to be fully informed about my medical care and I feel that my medical issues will deteriorate. I have lots of serious medical conditions, but I still manage to look after my children on my own and go to work. This bring normality to my life even though I am ill. This is the first time I can truly say that I feel down about being ill as yet again something is being taken away from me without my control.

I would like to know why the government has allowed GP Surgeries and Clinical Commissioning Groups to decide on the level of care and access they want to give their patient's as and when it suits them. I am a living, breathing human who wants to avoid dialysis, blindness and other medical issues for as long as possible.