MEDICAL staff in Bolton will become the first in England to look at patient records from GP surgeries through a new computer network.

Staff in key locations, such as those working in accident and emergency at the Royal Bolton Hospital, will be able to access a summary care record for patients using passwords in about eight weeks.

It is the first time they have been able to read patients' medical history outside a GP's surgery.

Patients may be given similar access to their records by May.

Under the current system, medical staff in casualty departments had no way of knowing what a patient's allergies were, or what medication they were taking.

Now, the records of patients at two practices in Bolton will be available electronically outside their GP surgery - making the borough the first place in the country where the scheme has been introduced.

Tim Evans, chief executive of Bolton Primary Care Trust, said: "It's a credit to our local teams and the work they've already put in that Bolton is able to be a pioneer in this field.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us, and no doubt some challenges along the way."

Letters have been sent to the 14,000 patients at the two practices involved - the Kearsley Medical Centre and Kirby, Page and McMilen in Bradshaw Brow - informing them of the changes.

Other GP practices in Bolton will be adopting the scheme in the coming months, and the rest of the country by 2008.