NHS medical records

Your NHS records, seen, requested and kept.

Your GP, every hospital trust and your dentist each hold part of your record. Here is where each part lives, the quickest way to see it, and how to get a copy of the rest.

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  • First copy normally free
  • One calendar month to respond
  • Your copy stays on your phone

Where each record lives, and the quickest way to it

Look online first, save what you can, then ask for the rest with a subject access request. What you can see online depends on your GP practice and hospital.

Record Look online Save a copy Ask for the rest
GP record Your GP practice Partly NHS App in England; new entries since late 2023, older ones on request Partly Letters and documents download; screenshot test results Yes Subject access request to your practice
Hospital notes, letters and results Each hospital trust or health board Partly The trust's own patient portal, where it has one Partly Letters from the portal, where it offers downloads Yes Request to the trust's records or subject access team
Scans and X-rays The trust's imaging department Usually not Portals usually show the written report, not the images Usually not Images come by secure link or disc once you ask Yes Ask for the images by name, with the exam date
Vaccinations Your GP; for children, also the Child Health Information Service Partly NHS App vaccinations section; the Red Book at home Partly Screenshot the app, or scan the Red Book pages Yes Ask your GP practice for a printout
Dental, optical and private care The practice or clinic that treated you Usually not Varies; most have no patient portal Usually not Ask the provider for copies Yes Subject access request to that provider
The right to a copy is the same in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Look, save, ask: an evening and a letter.

Most people can do the first two steps in one sitting. The third takes a month, so start it early.

  1. A phone lies face down beside reading glasses on a lamp-lit side table in the evening

    Look

    Open the NHS App, your nation's app or your hospital's portal and see what is already there.

  2. A printed letter lies on a kitchen table in window light beside a phone and a cup of tea

    Save

    Download letters and documents. Screenshot test results, which the NHS App cannot download.

  3. A white envelope rests half inside the slot of a red pillar box on a terraced street

    Ask

    Send a subject access request to each place that holds what is missing. It is normally free.

An empty high-street pharmacy counter at opening time with a prescription bag waiting on the wood

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Each nation has its own app or portal. In every one, a subject access request is the route to a full copy.

Nation Where to look first
England NHS App for your GP record; your hospital's portal for hospital records
Scotland MyCare.scot, being rolled out with medicines, allergies and vaccinations
Wales NHS Wales App: prescriptions, appointments and waiting-list information
Northern Ireland My Care, linked to the encompass record used by health and social care trusts

Hospital patient portals.

Some trusts give patients their own portal for that trust's letters, results and appointments. Several run on Epic's MyChart software under the trust's own name.

An empty hospital outpatient corridor with a row of seats along tall windows in morning light
  • MyMFT Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
  • MyChart Guy's and St Thomas' and King's College Hospital
  • MyChart Cambridge University Hospitals
  • MyChart East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
  • MyGOSH Great Ormond Street Hospital
  • My Care Health and social care trusts in Northern Ireland

Each portal covers that trust only and shows reports rather than scan images. Other trusts use Patients Know Best, often opened from inside the NHS App. KeepMD does not connect to any of these portals.

A guide for each situation.

Step-by-step help for the reasons people most often need their NHS records.

The full guide.

Your NHS records are not in one place

There is no single NHS records office. Your GP practice keeps your GP record. Each hospital trust you have been treated at keeps its own notes, letters, test results and scans. Your dentist, optician, community services and any private clinic keep theirs. If you have moved around the country, there may be several of each.

That is why people searching for “my NHS medical records” often find part of the picture and not the rest. The NHS App shows a lot from your GP record, but it does not show everything, and it shows very little from hospitals in many areas. This guide explains where each kind of record lives, the quickest way to see it, how to get a copy of what is missing, and how to keep your own copy so you are not starting again next time.

The quickest route: look, save, then ask

Work through three steps, in this order.

  1. Look. Open the NHS App (or your nation’s app, or your hospital’s portal) and see what is already there.
  2. Save. Download or save the letters and documents you can. Some sections, such as test results, cannot be downloaded, so note what you still need.
  3. Ask. For anything that is missing, send a subject access request to the organisation that holds it. Under UK data protection law this is normally free and the organisation should respond within one calendar month.

Most people can do the first two steps in an evening. The third takes longer, so start it early if you need records for a move, an appointment or a claim.

What the NHS App shows, and what it does not

In England, the NHS App shows your GP health record. Depending on your practice, that can include your prescriptions, test results, documents such as letters, vaccinations, health conditions and notes from appointments. Since the 2023 change to the GP contract, most people can see new entries added to their GP record from late 2023 onwards without asking.

Older entries are a different matter. If you want to see your record from before then, you usually need to ask your practice to give you access to your historic record. Some practices also restrict particular entries.

Results ordered by a hospital, private tests and some maternity and genetic tests may not appear in the NHS App at all. Test results also cannot be downloaded from the app, although documents such as GP letters can. Our guide to the GP record in the NHS App walks through each section, how to ask for historic access, and what to do about the gaps.

Getting a copy of what is missing

When a record is not online, or you need the complete file, ask the organisation that holds it with a subject access request. You can ask in writing or verbally, and you do not need a special form, although a written request gives you a record of the date. The organisation should respond within one calendar month. It can extend that by up to two further months for complex requests, but it must tell you within the first month.

Send separate requests to each place that holds records: your GP practice for your GP record, and the records or subject access team at each hospital trust. Ask for scans by name if you need them, because a request for “my records” may only return written notes.

Our step-by-step subject access request guide includes a sample letter you can adapt, what to do if a reply is late, and what can lawfully be withheld.

Why keep your own copy

Each app or portal shows one organisation’s records, and only while you have access. A hospital portal shows that hospital. The NHS App shows your GP record, but not everything in it, and not other hospitals’ notes. Records are kept for a set period and then can be destroyed. If you move abroad, access can end the day you leave.

A copy you hold yourself does not depend on any of that. KeepMD is a personal health record app for keeping those copies together:

  • Save NHS documents. Pick a PDF you downloaded from the NHS App or a hospital portal, or a screenshot of a result.
  • Scan paper records. Photograph letters, discharge summaries and a child’s Red Book with your phone’s camera.
  • Review before saving. KeepMD Vision reads the values on the page after you give consent, and you check every value before it is saved.
  • Keep family records apart. Use a separate profile for each person you look after.

Your records stay encrypted on your phone. KeepMD does not connect to the NHS App, GP systems, NHS login or NHS hospital portals, so you choose what to add. Read more about medical document scanning and how KeepMD keeps records on your device.

What is changing

The government’s 10 Year Health Plan proposes a single patient record that you could see in the NHS App, bringing together information from different parts of the NHS. It is planned for 2028 and depends on new legislation, so it is a plan rather than something you can use today. Until it exists, your records stay spread across the organisations that treated you, and the steps above remain the way to bring them together.

Questions

NHS medical records questions

Everything around your NHS records.

Guides for each step, and how KeepMD keeps the copies you collect on your device.

Sources