MyEyeSite enables you to collect and save your specialist rare eye disease records from different hospitals and other locations, and share them with your doctor.

To do this, you’ll first need to request your records from the hospitals you have been to. Then, when you receive the records, you can upload them into MyEyeSite, organise them, add your own notes, and choose who you would like to share them with.

Under the new GDPR legislation hospitals need to give you the means to access your data in a digital, complete and timely way. This process is known as a subject access request. Each hospital has a records team responsible for fulfilling medical data requests. After your request is submitted and they confirm your identity, your data will be released to you within 28 days. We provide a template to make this easy.

Here is our three step guide to making a subject access request for your records from a hospital.

Step 1: Identify what data you need

Each hospital will hold a wide range of data for each patient. Data may include anything from letters, emails, eye images or even doctors’ notes. Fulfilling data requests is often a largely manual process, so requests for types of data that aren’t required - such as notes - can prove costly and time consuming. Some types of data may prove more difficult to acquire especially if you’ve been attending the hospital for an extended period of time.

For this reason we ask that you limit your request to what you need. In retinal disease the most important records are usually the images taken of your eyes; they allow a doctor to see how a condition has developed.  If you are unsure on what to request, please check with your doctor.

Step 2: Find out who to send your subject access requests to

As mentioned above, each hospital has a team that is responsible for responding to patients’ subject access request. You need to find the relevant email address to reach that team. The easiest way to do this is to search for the contact information online, for example by searching for “HOSPITAL NAME  - records team” or “HOSPITAL NAME - subject access request”.

You may need to reach out to multiple hospitals. Don’t let this deter you as the process will likely be the same and won’t require much effort.

Step 3: Send an email

Use the template below to email the email addresses you identified above. Remember to replace the placeholders with your own details:

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to submit a subject access request for my medical data. 

I would like to request any medical images and letters of correspondence which the hospital has filed on me. I do not require anything else.

I would like to receive the data in an electronic format so that it can be easily uploaded into the MyEyeSite application.

Please contact me at this email address or you can ring me on <Your phone number here>.

Yours sincerely,

<Your name here>

NHS Number: <Your NHS number>

On receiving your email, the hospital records team will have a procedure for responding to your request. They may contact you to confirm your identity and get any further information they need. After this, the hospital should return your data within 28 days.

Once your data is returned you can upload it into the MyEyeSite application and share it with your doctor.