Increasingly, patient medical data is shared, for instance between GP surgeries and District Nursing, in order to give clinicians access to the most up to date information when attending patients.

The systems we operate require that any sharing of medical information is consented to by patients beforehand. Patients must consent to sharing of the data held by a health provider out to other health providers and must also consent to which of the other providers can access their data.

For example, it may be necessary to share data held in GP practices with district nurses, but the local podiatry department would not need to see it to undertake their work. In this case, patients would allow the surgery to share their data, allowing the district nurses to access it but not the podiatry department. Access to patient data is therefore under the control of each patient and can be shared on a 'need to know' basis.

Your health records contain a type of data called confidential patient information. This data can be used to help with research and planning.  The national data opt-out was introduced on 25 May 2018, enabling patients to opt out from the use of their data for research or planning purposes.   

You can view or change your national data opt-out choice at any time by using the online service at www.nhs.uk/your-nhs-data-matters or by calling 0300 3035678. 

Any choice you make will not impact on your individual care.