GP Connect NCRS guidance

The National Care Records Service (NCRS) now displays patient attachments through GP Connect.  

We are currently trialling this feature with a limited audience. 

These role-based access control (RBAC) codes can access GP Connect within NCRS: 

• B0257 
• B1900 

This is only if their organisation has: 

• been added to the access allow list 
• signed up to the GP Connect National Data Sharing Agreement 

GP Connect appears as a tab option when you access a patient’s record in NCRS.  

You can currently access patient attachments using desktop or tablet views. 

Two years of attachments are presented, starting with the most recently created, or the date filed if this information is not available. Older attachments can be loaded by following the instructions in the service.   

A search box allows you to filter results by keywords and phrases that appear in the filename or description.  

You can also filter by senders of information by selecting or deselecting:  

• individual GPs 
• other GP practices 
• care providers 

Each displayed attachment will show:  

• the date the file was created, or added to the GP record 
• the file title and other available information, such as a description 
• where the file originated from, if known 

Files that are under 5 MB will be available to view in your web browser.  

1. Information presented on recently created attachments may not yet have been revealed to the patient.   
2. Some in-patient encounters will result in multiple discharge letters. Some document types may also have multiple dates associated with them. If unsure of the most recent interactions, NCRS users should check the dates on the attachments.  
3. Supporting information, such as document titles and author information, is not standardised across GP practices. This means it will also vary across GP Connect attachments.  

Supported file types

The following GP Connect attachments are currently supported and accessible in NCRS: 

• PDF 
• JPEG 
• JPG 
• PNG 
• GIF 
• WebP 
• SVG 
• BMP 
• Plain text files