NHS England » GP2GP – transferred in records

The General Medical Services (GMS) GP Contract requires practices to use the GP2GP facility for the transfer of patient records between practices.

“The Contractor must use the facility known as ‘GP2GP’ for the safe and effective transfer of any patient records: (a) in a case where a new patient registers with the Contractor’s practice, to the Contractor’s practice from the practice of another provider of primary medical services (if any) with which the patient was previously registered”.

You can find full information about GP2GP and how it works by following the links below:

Hints and tips

The following guidelines help to ensure that a smooth and error free transfer of the record is achieved:

Ensure that the staff member registering the patient accesses the clinical system via a Smartcard with the relevant role-based access control (RBAC) permissions. This will enable them to perform cross-organisation searches using PDS to match patients across organisations at registration.
GP2GP relies upon a successful PDS trace at the point of registration, so practice staff need to ensure the correct patient is selected with the recommendation that the patient is present during the registration process.
Having the patient present for the search can make for more effective use of the registration form and help to cross-check any source data using the PDS trace service.
Follow up any patient deduction requests (i.e. requests for a patient to be removed from the list for some reason, e.g. abusive behaviour) with letters. The letter sent to a patient should explain the reason for the patient having been removed from the list and that they will need to register with a new GP as soon as possible.
Ensure the incoming GP2GP record tasks are filed within the required 8-day service level agreement (SLA) period.

The GP registrations data platform can be used to view integration times for practices receiving GP2GP transfers. The platform provides monthly data about the number of transfers your practice has received, how many were integrated within 3 days, 8 days, and those that were not integrated within 8 days.

This information can be used to keep track of integrations and identify areas to investigate further. Transfers that are not integrated within 8 days trigger the paper process, so avoiding this will help reduce the administrative burden both on your practice and the previous practice.

Degraded data

When registering a patient that has transferred to one practice from another, it is not always possible to accurately translate all the information across. Any information that cannot be understood will become ‘degraded data’ and must be dealt with to ensure an accurate record.

There are a number of reasons for data becoming degraded, including different coding systems having been used in the past. Going forwards, the differences in coding should be addressed by the use of SNOMED-CT.

For each newly registered patient with degraded data the practice will receive a task, which needs to be actioned. Medication cannot be prescribed for patients who have outstanding degraded drug sensitivities or allergies on their record.

Other points of note

Returning patients

GP2GP fully integrates the EHR for returning patients such as students and seasonal workers.

Summary care record

Patient preferences, such as the decision to have a summary care record (SCR) and which data elements are to be included or excluded, are transferred through GP2GP.

Patient facing services

Access settings will be preserved for patient facing services during the record transfer, however patients will still need to verify their account prior to the issuing of new login details.

Further information about patient facing services (patient online services) can be found using the link provided.

Error messages

Errors rarely happen but on occasion when they do, a clear message is sent within the clinical system detailing the action required.

Review dates

These do not carry over from previous practices, however external screening schedules do.

Redacted entries

At the current time redaction information does not get sent through GP2GP so any parts of the medical record that have been redacted to prevent their appearance in the online view will lose this setting. If continuing to provide online access after registration it is important to be aware that entries that had been redacted in the past may become visible if access to historic data is given.

Other helpful resources

NHS Digital, GP2GP v2.2

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