Experiences of retired doctors-as-patients accessing their own medical records

A survey on the views of retired doctors (as patients) in the UK and Spain with comparison to practising GPs’ views on patient access to records in the UK
Elderly man working from a laptop

Experiences of retired doctors-as-patients accessing their own medical records

A survey on the views of retired doctors (as patients) in the UK and Spain with comparison to practising GPs’ views on patient access to records in the UK
Title: Experiences of retired doctors-as-patients accessing their own medical records in UK and Spain
Funded by: University of Plymouth
Location: UK and Spain
Dates: January 2025–2026
University of Plymouth PI: Professor Ray Jones MBE  
University of Plymouth staff: Professor Shang-Ming Zhou  
Retired doctors: Richard Fitton, Brian Fisher, Mar Soler-Lopez, Angeles Lazcoz
Adelphi University: Pilar Martin, Viswanachiyar Subramanian
University of Manchester: Brian McMillan
Uppsala University: Charlotte Blease
 

Summary

Doctors-as-patients may have a different attitude to patient access to records than doctors-as-doctors – we don't know, so we want to find out. Doctors-as-patients may also have a different experience of wanting to (or being able to) obtain information from their medical record than non-doctors-as-patients. Again, we don’t know so we want to find out.
We aim to explore the experiences of retired doctors (as patients) in accessing their medical records in the UK and Spain and compare this with practising GPs' views on patient access to records in the UK. This survey will help us understand potential differences between the two countries and contribute to the discussion on the benefits of routine access to medical records.

Objectives

We aim to explore the experiences and views of retired doctors in the UK and Spain on their access to their own medical records. 
Participants need to be 60 or over, have (had) a qualification as a doctor, have had contact with health care providers in either the UK or Spain at least once in the last year, and have retired from full-time clinical practice. People who still work in some other capacity (e.g. administration, research or teaching while retired from clinical practice) will be included. The survey is anonymous and has ethical approval from the Faculty of Health ethics committee. Two versions of the survey exist, one in English and one in Spanish. 
 
 
 

Complete the survey

Complete the survey (English)

Completar la encuesta (Español)

 
 
 
 
 

Plymouth project team

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