Create a new patient record
You can find step by step details below - or watch this quick video to get an overview of the process.
The patient record is the starting point of any activity within OPERA. To access the patient database, select the "Manage Patients" option from the General Menu:
Once selected you will see a paginated list of patients within the system. Please note that the patient database contains Patient Identifiable Data and hence is subject to the data processing and governance agreements in place.
Find a patient
Before adding a new patient, please ensure that the patient is not in the database. You can search using Surname, Forename or NHS number, the search criteria can be changed by hovering your mouse over 'Surname' which is the default search criteria. For example:
As the database builds up to have a lot of patients with the same search criteria, you will need to order one of the columns to help you locate the patient, e.g. if you search surname then click on the top of 'Forenames' column to order alphabetically. You may need to then click through different pages to find patient using the blue arrows located higher up on the screen. If you cannot locate a patient then please use the NHS PDS Lookup service to add a new patient. Press the NHS PDS Lookup button which you can find on the top right of the screen:
Import a patient from NHS PDS System through Quick Patient Add
We recommend that you use the NHS PDS lookup whenever you can. Simply complete the details as shown below, minimum criteria is surname, gender and Date of Birth, more common surnames will require forename, there is no need to complete the postcode unless a patient is not found:
Please check the returned results carefully to ensure that you have the correct patient before accepting the demographic details.
If you are unable to locate the patient using the NHS lookup system please ensure you have a patient details correct and add more or less search criteria and try again, if not possible to fid then press the Manually Add Patient button and complete the following form.
For clinical safety reasons, and to ensure the correct capture of all information - it's important to try and import via PDS rather than manually creating a patient in OPERA. For example, the correct GP details will be assigned when using PDS.
Once a patient has been imported or created then you can begin to allocate clinical activity.
For patients that know their NHS number
Since C19 more patients are aware of their NHS number. If this is the case - you can quickly add their details using the Quick Add functionality:
Again, even if an NHS number has been supplied - please check the returned demographics are correct.