Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of making patient records owned by the patient.

Health records are not owned by patients, as the providers of care who create and maintain the records are the data controllers, although all patients have the right to access their records under the Data Protection Act 2018. Patients also have the legal right to ask for factual inaccuracies to be amended.

The general practice (GP) record can be viewed online on the NHS App, or by logging onto the National Health Service website. Individuals can alternatively contact their practice to view their record. To view a hospital record, individuals can ask the trust where they are a patient.

As part of the 10-Year Health Plan, we are developing a single patient record which will give patients greater control over their records, and act as a patient passport to seamless care. It will provide a single, secure, and authoritative account of their data by bringing together all of a patient’s medical information from different records in one place, for example GP and hospital data, and patients will be able to view the record securely on the NHS App and add their own data, for example from a wearable device.