FAQ: Should I have my own username and password for practice compters?

Do you get your own username and password when signing into practice computers? Sick of always being signed in under various combinations of ‘LOCUM1/DRL/LARRYLOCUM’? Perplexed as to how it’s your first time at the practice but looks like you (DRLOCUM) have seen this patient twice already this month? Irritated because you can’t work out who all the other freelance GPs are who’ve already seen this patient? Demoralised for not having the fundamental means for recording auditable medical notes? Struck off for never having officially been enabled to record a consultati…OK, you get the idea.

Secret passwords and usernames are essential to working as a GP – recording contemporaneous medical information in the patient’s notes is a vital part of clinical management; and a medico-legal requirement. And if your password isn’t secret, and call me paranoid, someone else could falsify records in your name.

So how come freelance GPs are so rarely given their own? Come on chaps, stand your ground and insist on one! Some of the clinical systems are pretty easy to set up, whereas others aren’t. For example, the procedure for setting up passwords on Microtest can be quite tricky. So we’ve been working with them (and what nice people they are) to make the procedure easier.

@NASGP Huge risk area. I had my name signed to referral letter for a pt I’d never seen. V diff to ensure audit trail in such a setting…

— Dr Catherine Harkin (@buletproofcardi) March 13, 2015

Meanwhile, here is a download to place under the noses of any defaulting practices.

Should I have my own username and password?

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