Amir Hannan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amir Simon Hannan MBE is an English doctor who works as a General Practitioner in Tameside and has pioneered patients having access and understanding to their Electronic health records in the English National Health Service.[1]
He grew up in a family of doctors – his mother was a gynaecologist who later became a GP.[2]
Amir is Chair of West Pennine Local Medical Committee and Chair of the Association of Greater Manchester Local Medical Committees
He is also Chair of the World Health Innovation Summit.
He joined Haughton Thornley Medical Centres in Hyde and Haughton Green in 2000 after it took over the Market Street practice which was formerly run by Dr Harold Shipman when he started his career. The practice is in a deprived neighbourhood with a large Bengali population. He saw giving patients access to their GP electronic health records and gaining a better understanding of their health and healthcare needs as a way of rebuilding trust in a difficult situation.[3] He told the BBC: "The week before I started there was a sit-down protest in the waiting room, because the patients were not happy about this doctor that was being foisted on them. That gives you some idea of the battlefield I was walking into". 150 patients at the practice were given access to their medical records and test results over the internet in 2007.[4] Prof Steve Field of the Care Quality Commission recounted: “It was very difficult to recruit to Shipman’s practice because of [the lack of] trust locally. But Amir said, ‘Right from the start I will share everything with my patients, and gave them access to all their own records. He’s got examples of patients being admitted to hospital where they have had to show the consultants their record which may have saved their lives. It’s policy to try and make it happen. But it’s not moving quickly enough.”[5] As of May 2015[update], 34% of the patient population were accessing to their GP record. There was no difference between the proportion of Bengali patients doing so and the rest of the practice population.[6] By December 2020, 10,000 patients (76% of the patient population) had full access to their GP electronic health records and a better understanding of their healthcare needs. You can see the latest data here.
He was one of the GPs who signed a letter to Liz Truss in 2022 urging more investment in primary care where they said surgeries were sinking under the weight of demand leading to wider health inequalities.[7]