Healthcare professionals should campaign for patients to have control of their medical records if they want pharmacists to gain access, GPs have said.

They told a parliamentary meeting that record ownership would "empower" patients and reduce their anxiety about sharing them.

Ownership would encourage the public to divulge their data so it could be analysed to identify patients in need of care before they visited A&E, GP Simon Fradd said at an all-party parliamentary group meeting on winter pressures on Wednesday (June 25).

Jim Lawrie, a GP and member of the Newham CCG board, called for a campaign to engage the public on the issue.

He told C+D it was "dreadful" that the public could not view their records and that he suspected this was because the NHS "doesn't trust patients".

Giving patients record ownership would "empower" them and reduce their anxiety about sharing records with other health professionals, GPs told a parliamentary meeting	More on patient records access Read-only access to SCRs only a 'step' in right direction GPs express concern over pharmacist access to surgery records 'Revolutionary' software allows pharmacists to access GP records
	Helen Donovan, public health adviser at the Royal College of Nurses, said granting pharmacists access to the same patient records that were available to GPs would resolve the "mismatch" of information between the two professions.

Ms Donovan pointed to the inability of pharmacists to see a patient's immunisation history as an example of how the IT systems in pharmacies and GP practices "don't speak to each other".

In January, the government pledged to give pharmacists priority access to patient records. Earlier this month, NHS England announced plans to trial pharmacy access to summary care records in certain areas.

In February, NHS England announced it would be delaying plans to send patient data from GP practices to the NHS Health and Social Care Information Centre, in response to pressure from health professionals and patients.

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