Family doctors are to debate for the first time safeguards for a system to share patient data across Scotland, it has been disclosed.

GPs will meet to discuss sharing their patient records on a computer system with health professionals across NHS Scotland.

Records are currently only forwarded by GPs when cases are referred to hospitals.

But GP representatives said they were under increasing pressure from managers and from within the profession to share their patients’ files.

Dr Alan McDevitt, who has tabled a motion to discuss security matters for sharing patient information, said: “Because of the difficulties of having to get patient information quickly, it would be difficult for hospital staff to maintain password security at times.

“If we put all this information on the system it potentially means the information is accessible from an awful lot of computers across the NHS in Scotland.

“We will debate the security measures which we want to see in order to safeguard the information.”

Dr McDevitt, who is secretary of the Glasgow local medical committee and a GP in Clydebank, continued: “We have to keep working at it because we don’t have enough of the safeguards yet to share more of this information.”

Dr McDevitt said there was currently no deadline for the information to be more widely shared.

The issue will be debated at the British Medical Association conference for Scottish GPs on 11 March in Clydebank.

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