GP Online Services (also known as ‘GPOS‘) allows you to:
- manage GP appointments (book, check, change, cancel) and appointments with other clinicians (check, cancel);
- order prescriptions; and
- view your medical record (see the ‘Accessing medical records via GPOS‘ section further down this page for more information)
This can be done:
- 24 hours a day;
- seven days a week;
- 365 days a year
You can do this all at your convenience via:
- a mobile phone / tablet ‘app’; or
- a website on a phone / tablet / laptop / PC.
You’ll be in one of two situations – either you’ve never used Online Services before (whether that be whilst a patient of Bedworth Health Centre GP surgery, or elsewhere) or you used it at your previous surgery. Please see the following:
Patients who’ve never used GPOS before
To use GPOS, you need to create an account with a GPOS provider – there are lots to choose from, the NHS England website has a list of all the GPOS providers, but the most popular amongst our patients are the NHS App and Patient Access. You will need things like your name, d-o-b, e-mail address, mobile phone number etc. to create an account. Secondly, for data protection reasons, when a patient wishes to create a GPOS account, they have to prove their identity by providing an identity document (most commonly a Passport or Driving License, although other documents are accepted). Some GPOS providers (like the NHS App) allow you to provide your identity document directly to them; others (like Patient Access), you have to provide it to the surgery – if you choose one of these providers, please follow the instructions under the ‘Linking your account‘ section, below.
New patients who used GPOS at their previous surgery
In these circumstances, whilst your account needs linking to our surgery, you do not need a new account. To link your account, please follow the instructions under the ‘Linking your account‘ section, below.
Linking your account
To link your account to our surgery, download, print, complete and return to the surgery, the GP Online Services registration form (please note: if you choose to complete this form on your computer, you will need to use digital signature software to sign the form – not a ‘signature-type‘ font). Ross, surgery IT Lead, will then be in touch to arrange seeing your identity documents to prove your identity (see below ‘Proving your identity‘ section). Once we have verified your identity, you will be e-mailed a Registration letter from ‘Your Healthcare Provider’ (if you’d prefer, this letter can be posted to you or collected from the surgery – if you’d like to do this, please advise Ross of this so this can be arranged). You then simply need to log back into your GPOS account and find the section asking you to ‘link’ or ‘connect’ to your GP surgery. You should then be prompted to enter your ‘registration details’ (a ‘Linkage Key’, ‘Account ID and ‘ODS Code (sometimes called ‘Practice ID’ or ‘NACS code’)’) – these are at the bottom of the Registration letter. Once you have entered these, this will link your GPOS account, with your medical record at our surgery.
Proving your identity
The surgery takes data protection seriously and to ensure that we are only providing GPOS access to the patient, we have to prove your identity. This is done by you by providing, in the case of basic GPOS access (manage appointments and prescriptions) at least one, but in the case of requests for access to medical records via GPOS, two, of a Passport, Driving License and bank statement. Ross, surgery IT Lead, will arrange to see these documents (this is normally done via a video call) – please do not send copies of documents as these cannot be accepted, we have to see you in possession of them. If you choose to bring your identity documents to surgery to show to a Receptionist before speaking to Ross, please do not bring anything other than the aforementioned documents (please note: an appointment is required to speak to Ross, he is not available ad-hoc). These documents have been agreed with the surgery’s external Data Protection Officer and no other documents can be accepted (this includes things like utility bills, council tax demand notices, hospital letters etc.). If you do not have one, two or any of these identity documents, Ross will be in touch to discuss further.
Proxy access
Some adult patients want a relative, friend or someone else to look after their GPOS account for them – this is known as ‘proxy access’. This can be arranged – the surgery is taking part in a proxy access pilot, more information is available on the NHS proxy application service here.
This pilot is only for adult patients who have the competence to consent at this stage, however adult patients who are not competent to consent to this, can be added to someone else’s GPOS account (this person is know as the ‘proxy’), and parents / guardians etc. can have a child patient added to their account (for GPOS, a child is considered anyone under the age of 13). If you’d like this to be done, please download, print, complete and return to the surgery, the GPOS registration form mentioned in the ‘Linking your account‘ section, above (note for proxies / parents / guardians etc.: complete the form in the name of the patient (e.g. if Mickey Mouse (proxy / parent / guardian) was completing the form on behalf of Donald Duck (adult patient who is not competent to consent / child patient), they would complete the form in Donald Duck’s name) – this is particularly relevant for the first bullet pointed question ‘Are you the patient?‘ on the form; if you are completing the form on behalf of someone else, the answer is ‘No’). Ross will then be in touch, to arrange to see either:
- for adult patients who are not competent to consent: identity documents for the person whose account the patient is being added to (if this has not already been seen) and to see a document giving authority for the person who is consenting on behalf of the patient, to do so (likely to be a Lasting Power of Attorney for Health & Welfare)*, and identity documents to prove that person’s identity; or
- for child patients: identity documents for the person whose account the patient is being added to (if this has not already been seen) and a document proving: the parenthood (in the form of, ideally, the long birth certificate naming the parent(s) but if this is not obtainable, the short birth certificate will suffice) / adoption / guardianship of the child (or evidence that the child is subject to a care order).
Please see the above ‘Linking your account‘ section for more information on what identity documents can be accepted and how these are obtained.
Patients should not make appointments in their name for other patients – the other patient should be added to their Online Services account if necessary, allowing someone else to make an appointment for them in their name on their behalf.
Proxy access can appear more confusing than it actually is, if you need any assistance please contact the surgery and ask to speak to Ross, who will then be in touch.
*If you do not have a legal right to consent on behalf of someone else who cannot consent to this themselves, but would like that person added to your GPOS account, speak to Ross to discuss further.
Accessing medical records via GPOS
Patients with a GPOS account can request access to their past medical records, to view in their account (this is known as your ‘detailed coded records’). This provides access to: medication history, records of immunisations, any current health conditions, test results, and surgery consultation history. On request, patients can also access their documents and ‘free text’ (i.e. what has been typed into your medical record but is not in what is known as ‘coded’ format (e.g. using the entry ‘the patient has been diagnosed with asthma‘ as an example; the word ‘asthma‘ is a coded entry and would likely appear in the ‘current health conditions’ section; the words ‘the patient has been diagnosed with‘ is classed as free text)). To request access, please download, print, complete and return to the surgery, the request for access to detailed coded records request form (please note: if you choose to complete this form on your computer, you will need to use digital signature software to sign the form – not a ‘signature-type‘ font) and read the access to medical records via GPOS information leaflet. Upon receipt of your form, the surgery has 28 working days to enable your access (please note: ‘working‘ days does not include weekends and bank holidays) – in most cases, access will be enabled before 28 working days have passed but there is a possibility that enabling your access may take this length of time; this is due to the complexities of certain medical records and workload of GPs, who have to review your record prior to your access being enabled (please see the ‘Please note:‘ section, below). We respectfully request that patients do not contact the surgery before 28 working days have passed to inquire “when their access will be enabled” – in these situations, we will simply advise you of the above.
From early-to-mid September 2023, patients will be able to access all of the above for their future medical record in their account, without needing to request access. ‘Future medical record’ means anything that is added to your records from the aforementioned date.
Patients requesting access to past medical records via GPOS, if they haven’t already done so via the surgery, have to have their identity verified by the surgery. The process of identity verification is outlined in the above ‘Proving your identity‘ section.
Please note: in most cases, you will see the entirety of your record, however in a very small number of cases, some entries have to be hidden (also known as redacted). GP surgeries have a responsibility to ensure that by making entries in your record visible, that that would not cause any harm to you or another person’s physical or mental health if it was to be seen, and to ensure that any third party made reference to in your records, have consented to you being able to see that. An example is a patient experiencing domestic violence that they have disclosed to the GP but did not want their abuser to be aware that they had done; if the patient had access to their medical records via GPOS and the abuser gained access, unless the entry relating to domestic violence was hidden, the abuser may see it, which may result in harm to the patient. As mentioned though, this is highly unlikely to affect you.
NHS England and Patient Access both have dedicated ‘walk through’ pages, with videos showing how you can do multiple things on both the NHS App and Patient Access.
There is a dedicated YouTube channel for GPOS called Patient Online; these are a few example of videos from the Patient Online channel.
There is also further information with regards to GP Online Services available through the NHS website.