Human rights groups – including violence against women and girls organisations – have issued warnings to survivors and victims of domestic abuse over the new NHS data sharing plan.

GPs in England will be contractually obliged to provide patients with remote access to their medical records via the NHS app and website by the end of this month – the plans were originally set out for completion in 2021, but was delayed due to privacy concerns.

Now, as the deadline nears, rights watch groups are voicing their alarm at how the law may make those at risk of domestic abuse more in danger from perpetrators.

Abusers may be able to gain access to a user’s records by coercing the patients to share access or through other means – this can make their address available, as well as other pertinent medical information that can be used against them or put them in further danger.

While the changes only have to apply to prospective medical records made from the date of access, the specialist Technology-Facilitated Abuse Team at Refuge, a charity group, have found owing to historical local decisions and patients previously opting in when joining practices, there are inconsistencies in the information available to patients.

Some are only able to access new, or recent, medical records, while others can see as far back as the 1970’s and some have full information while for others sensitive information has been redacted.

The discrepancies in the amount and type of data made accessible online has drawn concern from major rights groups including Refuge, Women’s Aid, and Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW), as well as the British Medical Association.

One in four women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, and one in five women are likely to experience stalking, according to an open letter signed by the groups.

Accessibility to patient records may allow perpetrators to weaponise information for abuse, the groups have warned.

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Therefore, they urge survivors and victims and those at risk to discuss what records are on file and to have sensitive data removed or redacted from online records.

Further, if they believe it is safe to do so, survivors and victims may even consider deleting the NHS app from their devices until better safeguarding and protections are in place.

Currently, the organisations are engaging in dialogue with NHS England to raise safety concerns for survivors over the past few years. The IRISi has developed specific guidance for GPs on how the app should be used in cases of domestic abuse.

“It is really disappointing and saddening that the Government and NHS England have not fully addressed the real risk to survivors that these changes will create,” Ellen Miller, the Interim CEO of Refuge said.

“These changes will allow perpetrators to gain access to survivors’ personal health records, including details on medications, sexual, reproductive, and mental health records, and disclosures of domestic abuse.

“The lack of publicity around these changes means that some survivors records may already be available in the NHS app, and they do not even know it.”