What is the purpose of this site?
When an organisation decides to use GP Connect products it also needs to agree to the terms of the National Data Sharing Arrangement. This sets out the terms of appropriate data use.
This site allows organisations to submit a mandatory application that, once approved and set up, allows them to access GP patient records under the terms of the arrangement.
How does the signup process work?
Signing up to the National Data Sharing Arrangement is an easy process provided that you have the right information to hand and authority to act on your organisation's behalf.
The sign-up starts by clicking the 'Apply now' button on the home page. This will then take you through 7 steps:
Only start this process once you have the information ready as spending too long inactive on a page will cause a time-out error, restarting the application.
Step 1: Software supplier
Provide the name of the IT software your organisation uses for its GP Connect products - for example, EMIS. If you are unsure you should ask a member of your IT staff. Once you have selected the software you will be asked to choose which products you use with that software.
Once you have filled this in, click 'Confirm' to progress to the next step.
Step 2: Your organisation
Next you will be asked to enter your organisation's ODS code and click 'Find organisation'. If successful a box below will populate with your organisation's name and address.
It is important that these are correct to ensure you are signing up on behalf of the right organisation. When you are ready click 'Confirm' to progress.
Step 3: Reason
You now need to select a reason for accessing the patient record via GP Connect. This can be done by selecting one of the predefined statements for common healthcare settings.
When you select an option, that predefined statement will appear below. Ensure you agree with it as this will be the public-facing statement explaining how and why you access patient data.
Alternatively, if you don't feel the predefined reasons match your circumstances you can write your own reason by selecting 'Write your own' and typing in the box below.
Once you are satisfied with your selection click 'Select this reason' to continue.
Step 4: Additional information
Now you have selected a use case, you will be given the option to supply a link to your organisation's Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) webpage. In most cases this is optional, although if you have selected the 'Shared care records' option from the previous step they are necessary.
You can also choose to add any additional information such as your organisation's privacy notice to be read by patients and the public accessing your record.
Step 5: Confirm arrangement
Next you will be asked to confirm that you have read and agree to the arrangement. Please tick all the checkboxes to confirm you have understood the details.
When you are ready click 'Confirm' to continue.
Step 6: Signatory
Finally, you now need to provide the details of a signatory. This needs to be someone in one of the following roles in your organisation: Caldicott Guardian, Senior Information Risk Officer, Data Protection Officer.
You will be asked to provide their name, role and email. This is the email that will be used for contact regarding your application. If you would like to provide an additional contact email such as your own you can do so with the additional email address field.
Once you have correctly filled these fields click 'Confirm' to continue.
Step 7: Review submission
Lastly, a review page to check all your application details before submitting.
If you want to change any of the details, click on 'Change' against the relevant section and you will be taken to that step.
If you are happy with all the details you have entered scroll to the bottom and click 'Submit'.
What happens after submitting?
Once submitted, a confirmation email will be sent to the signatory and the additional email if it has been provided.
The application will then be reviewed by an admin team who will approve or reject the application within 14 days.
In some instances they may contact you to edit the application before approving it.
Please check your 'Spam' or 'Junk Email' folder if you haven't heard anything after 14 days. Failing that contact the team directly at gpconnect@nhs.net.
Provide feedback
We welcome feedback on the National Data Sharing Portal for GP Connect so please complete the satisfaction survey and if you would like to write some suggestions for improvement, comments or any other feedback, please feel free to do so.
Further Help
If you would like further help with the National Data Sharing Portal for GP Connect, please send an email to gpconnect@nhs.net