The National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) Regulations 2015

Patient online services

71.—(1) A contractor must promote and offer to its registered patients the facility for a patient to—

(a) book, view, amend, cancel and print appointments online;

(b) order repeat prescriptions for drugs, medicines or appliances online; and

(c) view and print a list of any drugs, medicines or appliances in respect of which the patient has a repeat prescription,

in a manner which is capable of being electronically integrated with the computerised clinical systems of the contractor’s practice using appropriate systems authorised by the Board.

(2) The requirements in paragraph (1) do not apply where the contractor does not have access to computer systems and software which would enable it to offer the online services described in that paragraph to its registered patients.

(3) A contractor must, when complying with the requirement in paragraph (1)(a), consider whether it is necessary, in order to meet the reasonable needs of its registered patients, to take action to increase the proportion of appointments which are available for its registered patients to book online and, if so, take such action.

(4) A contractor must promote and offer to its registered patients, in circumstances where the medical records of its patients are held on the contractor’s computerised clinical systems, the facility for a patient to—

(a) access online any summary information derived from the patient’s medical records and any other data which the contractor has agreed that the patient may access; and

(b) view online, electronically export or print any summary information derived from the patient’s medical records and any other data which the contractor has agreed that the patient may access.

(5) A contractor must promote and offer to its registered patients, in circumstances where the medical records of its registered patients are held on the contractor’s computerised clinical systems, the facility for any such patient to access online all information from the patient’s medical record which is held in coded form unless—

(a) in the reasonable opinion of the contractor, access to such information would not be in the patient’s best interests because it is likely to cause serious harm to—

(i) the patient’s physical or mental health, or

(ii) the physical or mental health of any other person;

(b) the information includes a reference to any third party who has not consented to its disclosure; or

(c) the information in the patient’s medical record contains a free text entry and it is not possible under the contractor’s computerised clinical systems to separate that free text entry from other information in that medical record which is held in coded form.

(6) The requirements in paragraph (4)—

(a) do not apply where the contractor does not have access to computer systems and software which would enable it to offer the online services described in that paragraph; and

(b) only apply until such time as the contractor is able to fully comply with the requirements in paragraph (5).

(7) The requirements in paragraph (5) do not apply where the contractor—

(a) does not have access to GPSOC accredited computer systems and software which would enable it to offer the online services described in that paragraph to its registered patients; and

(b) has, by 30th September 2015, publicised its plans to achieve that requirement by 31st March 2016 by displaying a statement of intent on the practice premises and, where the contractor has a website, on the practice website.

(8) Where the contractor has a practice website, the contractor must also promote and offer to its registered patients the facility referred to in paragraph (1)(a) and (b) on that practice website.

(9) In this regulation—

(a) “GPSOC accredited computer systems and software” means computer systems and software which have been accredited by the Secretary of State or by another person in accordance with “General Practice Systems of Choice Level 2(1); and

(b) “summary information” has the meaning given in regulation 68(2).

(1)

GP Systems of Choice is a scheme by which the National Health Service funds the cost of GP clinical IT systems in England. Guidance about this scheme is available from the Health and Social Care Information Centre, 1 Trevelyan Square, Boar Lane, Leeds, LS1 6AE.