According to NHS (2022), the local GP surgeries collect important medical and scientific data
in the form of written record then it is recorded digitally which helps the data to get
transferred easily to other NHS departments. Where in welcome trust collects the medical
data directly through digital sample analysis.
The NHS asks the peoples to get registered with them which is done via online or a letter.
During registration, the patient is asked to provide their information which includes full
name, date of birth, settlement status, contact details (phone number and email address),
any allergies and health problems. If any patients want to see his record while booking a GP
appointment, the doctors can easily see their patient record just by entering their surname
and date of birth. (Shared health foundation, 2018)
There are many advantages of digital medical records. Digital records can be easily accessed
anywhere in the world only by name of specific document. To search a record, you just need
a few details like name of the patient, date of birth, patient number, or disease. In short, the
NHS just needs a limited amount of information to access the patient’s database.
Furthermore, digital records require significantly less storage than handwritten records, all
whilst being easily accessible in compassion to a tangible form.
However, there are some downsides to the digital side of it. One disadvantages of digital
record are that they can be hacked by someone. As digital record is stored in a cloud system
that is connected to internet, although they are easily accessible, but someone can easily
hack the system and decrypt the files, the stolen information can be used to target or
blackmail the patients. To reduce these disadvantages, the healthcare system has
introduced Informatics designed to improve the processes of storing and transferring
medical data.
Other disadvantage is that the electronic medical records might be harder for older peoples
to access, because they have to remember the usernames and how to use that website.
A different method for storing and gathering data information is the use of physical or
handwritten documents, in which each patient information is written in each separate file.
Then each separate individual file is stored in the specific patient health records. To ensure
the security of these health records, only the staff members are allowed to access these
records. If these staff members have to access these records. first, they have to sign in using
the username and password which is given by their organisations. furthermore, the devices
in which these health records are stored are only used by staff members, which are just
used to access the records not for any gaming or personal use. This ensures that these
computers or devices are safe from any virus that can leak that data. To ensure the security