GP Connect

GP Connect allows authorised health and social care workers in a variety of care settings to access their patients' GP records.

Health and social care workers can:

• view a patient's care record and associated documents
• update a patient's care record and associated documents
• manage a patient's appointments

We are working on allowing patients to access GP connect. Patients will be able to:

• view their own care record
• view their appointments
• view their prescriptions
• request permission to view all of the above, if not already granted

GP Connect is a national service that's integrated with all major GP software providers. It routes requests to the appropriate GP system, based on the patient's registered GP.

It does not store any GP, patient or care provider data - it merely enables interconnectivity between authorised and approved systems.

GP Connect consists of a number of individual 'products', each of which can be used independently:

GP Connect is for:

• health and social care workers
• patients (in development)

The patient must be registered with a GP in England.

GP Connect can be used in a variety of care settings but can only be used for the purpose of direct care, as per our legal directions.

Some functions have restricted use. For example, Update Record is currently only for use by community pharmacy.

Care settings must sign the National Data Sharing Arrangement for GP Connect.

Users cannot access the service directly - they must access it via point-of-care or patient-facing software that is integrated with the GP Connect APIs.

Who is included

GP connect provides access to patient records held by their GP. For a given patient's record to be available via GP Connect, the following must be true:

• the patient must be registered with a GP in England
• the GP's software must support GP Connect
• the GP must have gone live with GP Connect
• the patient must not have opted out of GP Connect

Note that some suppliers and GPs might be live with a subset of the GP Connect products.

What information is held for each patient

For details of information held for each patient, see Appendix 2 of the GP Connect transparency notice.

GP Connect for providers

Providing access to patient records via GP Connect is mandated for all GP practices in England.

Accordingly, it is also mandated for GP software suppliers as part of the GP IT Futures framework, and will be mandated as part of the upcoming Digital Services for Integrated Care framework that replaces it.

GP Connect for consumers

Using GP Connect to access GP records from other care settings isn't usually mandated, however:

• it might be mandated by specific commercial frameworks
• even if not mandated, it is strongly recommended as it can help improve patient outcomes.

The status of each of the GP Connect products is as follows:

'FoT' refers to First of Type, an iterative cycle that facilitates the development, self-assessment, assurance and live deployment of supplier systems consuming GP Connect products.

GP Connect is a silver service, meaning it is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and supported from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday excluding bank holidays. 

Health and social care workers

To access GP Connect, you need to be using clinical software that is integrated as a GP Connect 'consumer'.

If you are using a product that has already been assured for GP Connect or you intend to use a product that has been assured with a GP Connect capability (see Consumer supplier progress), you will need to contact your IT helpdesk or supplier account manager to arrange GP Connect for your organisation. 

If you are a supplier or programme that wants to onboard, see Onboarding.