Interesting this. When I moved to France asked my UK GP for transfer of my UK medical records, but was told it was not possible. In France I can have access to anything I want to see, and I store my X-Ray images at home, which must save a fortune in document storage across the French health service. Just need a truck when I go for an appointment

Just to note about requesting your medical records, which is exactly the same process as requesting any personal information about yourself that any organisation holds. The right is from the current Data Protection Act and is called a Subject Access Request. You can be charged up to £50 but if just a print out from computer should only be £10. However if you can wait until the UK implements the General Data Protection Regulation in May 2018 it will be free.

So I should?

Send the request myself, then lob all the received paperwork at the GP's secretary?

Wander00, no legal reason why your medical record cannot be transferred to France (or any country in the EU) but if its a computer record then connectivity and compatibility of technical systems may be the issue. Easiest way is to ask for them as SAR described above and take them yourself, to any country you wish in fact - or post them on facebook if you want, once given to you the record is your property and you can whatever you want with it.

That's pretty much what I plan to do camelspyyder (after some "redaction" - ahem :E).

Sent off my request yesterday as per Wrathmonk's link in his post 6, I'll let you know what happens.

For those interested in how the current situation should actually operate this is the formal response from the NHS body that is responsible for such stuff:

When a Forces or Service dependant patient registers with DMS the GP holding the record should follow the same procedure as they would for a patient leaving their practice and registering with another GP within the NHS.

Once DMS receive the NHS GP records for a Forces patient they will be held in DMS storage. During their time under the care of the DMS the patients NHS records will not be updated, however the patient will have a DMS Service Health care record which will be updated with any current clinical notes received in DMS. Once the patient is discharged from DMS a copy of the service record held by the MOD will be forwarded to the GP with whom they register together with the NHS GP record retrieved from storage. Details will also be sent to the current GP advising them on how to apply for the full service health record with the permission of the patient. Whilst a Forces patient is registered with DMS they can only be seen by an NHS GP on a temporary basis until they have been discharged from DMS. Any clinical information from the NHS GP should be sent to DMS following the procedure for temporary residents.

For Service dependant patients the NHS GP record once received in DMS will follow the patient to whichever DMS medical centre they register with and will be updated by the DMS medical centres as they would be by a GP practice. Once leaving DMS the NHS GP record will be forwarded to their current NHS GP or held in storage until the patient registers back with the NHS. Any clinical notes received by DMS for current DMS patients will be forwarded to their current DMS medical centre. Service dependant patients have the option to register with the an NHS GP without having to wait to be discharged.