New contractual requirements came into force from 1st April 2014 requiring that GP practices should make available a statement of intent in relation to the following IT developments:

• Referral management
• Electronic appointment booking
• Online ordering of repeat prescriptions
• Summary Care Record
• GP2GP transfers
• Patient access to records

Referral management

The practice will ensure that the NHS Number as the primary identifier in all NHS clinical correspondence will be used.

Electronic appointment booking

Practices are required to promote and offer the facility for all patients, who wish to, to book, view, amend, cancel and print appointments online.

We currently offer the facility for booking and cancelling appointments online using the Online Services.

Online booking of repeat prescriptions

Practices are required to promote and offer the facility for all patients, who wish to, to order online, view and print a list of their repeat prescriptions for necessary drugs, medicines or appliances.

We currently offer the facility for ordering repeat prescriptions online using the Online Services.

GP2GP Record Transfers

There is a contractual requirement to utilise the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices, when a patient registers or de-registers.

It is very important that you are registered with a doctor at all times.

If you leave your GP and register with a new GP, your medical records will be removed from your previous doctor and forwarded on to your new GP via NHS England.  It can take several weeks for your paper records to reach your new surgery.  With GP to GP record transfers, your electronic record is transferred to your new practice much sooner.

The practice confirms that GP2GP transfers are already active and we send and receive patient records via this system.

Patient Access to their GP record

Practices are required to promote and offer the facility for patients to view online, export or print any summary of information from their records relating to medications, allergies, adverse reactions and any other items/date such as ‘additional’ record elements which has been agreed between the contractor and the patient.

The practice has made available to patients (who have Online Services) to view their records relating to medication, allergies, adverse reactions and immunisations.