Manage patient accounts

Make sure that Detailed Coded Record (DCR) or full record access for your patient is switched on in the relevant clinical system.

The access is visible from the date you set on your computer system, for example. the date your patient joined the practice or the date they requested their online access.

The linkage key or passphrase you issue has an expiry data of 2 weeks after it is printed. This is a security feature of the PIN document and can only be used one time. 

Deleting an NHS account can cause significant issues and could result in your patient getting error messages. We strongly advise against this unless you have been advised as part of a workaround.

The NHS App connects to your local computer system, but it also pulls information from the SPINE for example patient’s name. Please ensure you check both your local system and the central database PDS/SPINE when your patients raise a demographic issue.

We encourage you to set up a test patient so that you can see how features appear to patients in their NHS App. This test patient’s NHS number is different from the ones previously issued for example. Minnie Mouse, as they are live on SPINE.