To an extent... but if I started trying to acess the notes of a 60 year old bloke, questions might be asked. It would be an unusual request considering I now work with children and need to acces their records. Also, hospital records and GP records can be different. GP are likely to have copies of every letter ever sent from any hospital appt. The hospital will have a referral for a particular thing and a summary of your medical history that the GP gives. So I might have a patient who's had appointments in opthalmology say, but unless it has a direct bearing on what they've been referred to this service for, we'll just know that this is something they've had treated. (Unless it was at the same hospital and then I could access the letters on the system and look but again, there'd be no reason for me to, I would only want to see things that had a bearing on what my consultants wished me to do).
E.g. I have a lot of access to psychological reports but unless I need something directly from these reports, I just file, action or don't open as it's not my business.
Hope that makes some sort of sense ethradon!