Patients Accessing the GP electronic health record and understanding – the HAUGHTON THORNLEY MEDICAL CENTRES way

PLEASE NOTE – Since the presentation was given, the plan for prospective access to the GP electronic health record in England has now been delayed.

On 14th March 2022 Dr Hannan gave a presentation detailing:

why we at Haughton Thornley Medical Centres (HTMC) started to give patients full access to their GP electronic health record and understanding in 2004
what we did and still do,
how we did it,
what the challenges are that we are facing now in General Practice,
the importance of the Partnership of Trust,
the practice-based web portal www.htmc.co.uk built with Glen Griffiths and the Patient Participation Group
how we support understanding by sign-posting to trusted information from the practice,
our explicit consent process,
what we mean by Responsible Sharing,
a description of the consent process that all patients wanting access to their records must complete,
some dos and dont’s when writing in the notes,
how to deal with 3rd Party data (not just redaction),
what other providers can do to help when sending notes to GP surgeries including do you need to send everything?,
an introduction to the Information Governance strategy for Greater Manchester Combined Authority that has recently been ratified and
finally a dedication to Ingrid Brindle who recently passed away and was the Chair of Haughton Thornley Patient Participation Group

We talk about Records Access and Understanding being crucial to help patients, clinicians and practices. Patients, carers and information are the most under-utilised resources the NHS has. Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world – Nelson Mandela. This is why the practice-based-web portal www.htmc.co.uk was built from the ground up to help support the Partnership of Trust that forms when a patient and a clinician come together and through continuity of care foster a relationship that supports care where both patient and clinician feel positive about supporting each other and they are signposted to resources here that cement what they learn in the consulting room and then can refer back to information to gain a better understanding. In effect, those who listened to the zoom call live, got to hear and engage with Dr Hannan, ask questions to get a better understanding but then they now have this resource to refer back, read what was said, see my notes (here!) that sums up what we talked about and can then read more if they want to know more than what was said. See below for a wide variety of resources that you can refer to find out more. Those who were unable to attend the zoom call do not miss out because these resources are available for people to learn later and hence the need to come back to Dr Hannan reduces as the information is shared beyond those who came and this spreads through your own networks and systems to all corners of the world. All that is required is to create an interest, realise that you can learn for yourself with our support and there is a safety-net so that you can come back to us if you need to know more. Even better, please tell us what you think about this resource and what is missing so that we can build this resource further, help people to get started and those that have to help sustain them by seeing what we have built over many years and you can build your own resources. We would love to provide links to other practice-based resources too so that others may learn as well organically whilst supporting each other and learning from one another. You can follow Dr Hannan via twitter @amirhannan or send an email to [email protected] and we will get back in touch.

You can view the slides from the talk here:

20220314 patient access to records and Understanding from April 2022 from amirhannan

Here is the “pre-introduction” just learning about what some participants were hoping to get from the talk and their own experience to date.

Listen to the talk

Questionnaire-for-Records-Access-and-Understanding-v4 Download

The Questions and Answers

Links to useful resources for people wanting to know more

Guardian article 30th November 2011 – Patients need access and understanding of their electronic health records
Towards a Partnership of Trust – the original paper written with a patient (not at HTMC) describing the basis of this relationship and why it mattered
The Big Consent Issue – our consent process and where we have been to inform others about it over many years https://tinyurl.com/HTMCBigConsentIssue
Our consent process including the Records Access and Understanding Safety Checklist questionnaire. Download the PDF here.
Over 15,000 patients have now completed the Records Access and Understanding Safety Checklist questionnaire – see our statement when we reached this milestone and how did patients respond. See our data https://tinyurl.com/HTMC15000QsRAandUnderstanding
What is an empowered patient ? Listen to Yvonne Bennett who talked about this over 10 years ago, a tweetchat about this and then what happened when 10 years later, she fractured her hip https://tinyurl.com/HTMCEmpoweredPatient
Testimonials from patients with access to records and understanding
Listen to what empowered patients in the practice who have had full access to their GP electronic health record and understanding and our then Practice Manager had to say when the Chief Officer for Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership came to the practice to learn about #Empowerlution at Haughton Thornley Medical Centres and the local neighbourhood in 2017 https://tinyurl.com/HTMCEmpowerlution
Case Study: Patient Access to Records and Understanding
How many patients currently have Records Access and Understanding. We publish our data every Sunday to monitor how things are going and ensure nobody is left behind. https://tinyurl.com/HTMCPatientsWhoCanReadDocNotes
Kings Fund blog:Using Technology to build a Partnership of Trust with Patients
Cancer Mum: So why do Patients and Carers want Health Records?
The Blonde explores “Digital Leadership” from NHS Digital – a blog by Bruce Elliott
Electronic Health Records: There are many benefits but what about the risks?
Do you want to have a go and see what full records access and understanding feels like when a practice activates all components (and not just a Lite version)? Try the test patient record
Learn about Responsible sharing https://tinyurl.com/HTMCResponsibleSharing
Greater Manchester Information Strategy January 2022. Purpose of Report. Listen to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Alison MckenzieFolan introduce the strategy
Ingrid Brindle – the Chair of Haughton Thornley Patient Participation Group who recently passed away but left a wonderful legacy for all to follow. See this twitter moment that shows who she was and what she stood for

Here are some resources that we have developed that give a flavour of the kind of things we have produced to support patients and their carers, In effect, these are the “AccuRx messages” we send to patients as a text message following a consultation that helps them to learn more. Patients want to know how they can get the best from the practice and what is available locally linked to trusted information from elsewhere – regionally or even nationally. Practices should consider building their own personal information because change happens at a local level and patients register with the GP practice and not just the NHS

Getting the best from the practice

Click here to learn how to get the BEST from the practice and the BEST YOU https://tinyurl.com/HTMCGettingTheBestFromUs

Diabetes and Ramadan

Learn more about how to look after yourself during Ramadan when fasting https://tinyurl.com/HTMCRamadan

Child Care
Click here to learn about Child Care

Learn about Depression care
Please click here to learn about Depression and Anxiety. You can self refer for counselling by clicking here