Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his Department's policy that a patient's GP practice be informed if that patient visits different hospitals in the same NHS trust with similar illnesses or injuries.

A patient’s general practice (GP) would usually be informed when they attended hospital, either via a discharge letter, or via a notification on an electronic patient record system. This is dependent on the National Health Service trust knowing the patient’s registered GP. A patient may object to the sharing of their information with their GP when visiting a trust, for example when attending accident and emergency, and the trust will need to follow data protection legislation and guidance to determine whether it is in its best interests to still share this with the patient’s GP.