How do we move years of paper history into an electronic record?

Honestly: there is no magic wand that turns handwriting into coded data, and we won't pretend otherwise. The practical path is to start coded from day one - new consultations, prescriptions and results are structured data immediately - and bring the paper history across as you go: key documents scanned and filed to the record, and a registration questionnaire that captures allergies, medications and history from the patient as coded entries. Most practices find the record that matters is largely rebuilt within a few visits.

What does an electronic health record give a private GP that paper cannot?

Four things paper structurally cannot do: safety checks at the moment of prescribing (dm+d-checked, with hard alerts that block issuing), registers and recalls that maintain themselves from the coding in your notes, instant retrieval - any record in seconds rather than a filing cabinet - and connection: letters to a patient's NHS GP over the NHS message exchange, online booking with payment, and results filed against the record electronically.

What does it cost compared to paper?

Jump is from £100 per user per month with pricing public on our website. Paper's direct costs are low - stationery, printing, storage - but its real costs are time: writing, filing, finding, copying and chasing. A practice that adds up the hours spent on retrieval and recall admin usually finds the subscription is the cheaper of the two.

How long does it take to set up?

The same day. Jump runs in the browser - nothing to install, no server, no NHS network connection to stand up. You sign up, get a sandbox with sample patients to practise on, and can see your first patient on it the day you start.

Compare · Jump vs paper notes

From handwritten notes to a coded record.

Plenty of excellent private GPs still run on paper. The notes work - until you need to find one, check an interaction, chase a recall, or prove who wrote what. This page is an honest look at what an electronic health record changes for a private GP practice, and what it genuinely takes to switch.

Book a demo See the comparison

SNOMED CT · NHS dm+d · MESHsearchable · checked · auditedfrom £100/mo per user · same-day setup

ehr.usejump.co.uk · New consultation · Margot Whelan · pat_M2vXn7q9

Consultation detailsDysuria+ Add problem

DysuriaSNOMED CT 49650001New episodeSignificant

History

Three days of dysuria and frequency. No fever, no flank pain. No visible haematuria. Second episode this year.

Examination

Apyrexial. Abdomen soft, mild suprapubic tenderness. No renal angle tenderness.

+ Family history+ Social+ Assessment / comment+ Add section

This visit · linked actions

Medication+Lab order+Referral+Observation+Procedure+Document+

RxMedicationAllergy check passedNitrofurantoin 100mg MR capsules100mg twice daily · 3 days · dm+d checked

LabLab orderUrine MC&Ssent · awaiting result

RecordReferenceVideo

Reference · pinned

UTI in womenpatient.info

UTI (lower): antimicrobialsNICE

Patient context

Allergies

Penicillin · anaphylaxis, 2019

Active medication

Metformin 500mgJump

Methotrexate 15mgExternally managed

Observationscoded · graphable

BP 132/84 · Temp 36.8°C

The short version

Paper is familiar, costs almost nothing to start, and needs no setup at all. Its costs arrive later, as time: finding records, copying them for subject access requests, checking interactions by hand, and keeping recall lists alive in a diary. An electronic record does that work structurally - coded notes, checked prescriptions, registers that maintain themselves - which is the whole argument, so it's the one this page makes honestly.

Capability

JumpPPaper notes

The clinical record

Clinical notes · Jump: SNOMED-coded and problem-led, legible and searchable, with laterality and qualifiers as dataYesHandwritten

Prescribing safety checks · Jump: dm+d checks with hard alerts that block issuing; private scripts to 4 partner pharmaciesYesManual checks

Finding a record · Jump: any record in seconds, searchable by patient and problemYesFiling cabinet

Who wrote what, and when · Jump: an audit trail on every entry, with role-based access controlYesHandwriting & initials

Safety netsthe work paper leaves to memory and diaries

Clinical registers & care gaps · Jump: 15 self-maintaining registers built from the coding in your notesYesManual lists

Patient recalls · Jump: attendance fulfils the recall automatically; lapses demand a decisionYesDiary & phone

Lab results on the record · Jump: structured analytes with abnormal flags, reviewed before filingYesPaper reports

Running the practice

Online booking with payment · Jump takes full payment before the slot confirmsYesPhone & diary

Invoicing & card payments · Jump: Stripe billing, in-clinic terminals, Xero-direct invoicingYesPaper invoices

Letters to a patient's NHS GP · Jump: sent over the NHS message exchange (MESH), delivery tracked - printing and posting still works tooYesPrinted & posted

Messaging patients · Jump: SMS and email from the record, and a portal behind one-time-code sign-inYesPhone & post

Practicalities

Setup · Jump: same day, in the browser - and paper needs none at all, which is honestly paper's best featureSame dayNothing to set up

Public per-user pricing · Jump: from £100/mo per user, on the websiteYesn/a

Jump's column describes our product as it ships, as of July 2026. The paper column describes doing the same job by hand - it is context, not a score.

PPaper may still fit if

You see a handful of patients a month, practise alone, and the filing works because there is very little of it.You're winding a practice down rather than building one up.You accept the trade-offs knowingly: manual safety checks, manual recalls, and the time cost of finding and copying records.

Jump fits if

You're building a practice: more patients, more clinicians, or more than one of you needing the same record at once.You want the safety nets working structurally - checked prescriptions, registers and recalls that maintain themselves.You want patients booking and paying online, and the NHS GP hearing from you electronically.

day one · coded

Start coded from day one

Every consultation, prescription and result from your first day in Jump is structured, SNOMED-coded data - registers and prescribing checks work immediately for everything new.

documents · filed

Bring documents as you go

Scan and upload the paper that matters - referral letters, results, old summaries - and file it against the patient record, where it is findable in seconds.

questionnaires · coded answers

Patients rebuild their own history

A registration questionnaire captures allergies, medications and history from the patient as coded entries on the record - no retyping from handwriting.

Common questions

Questions, answered.

The questions private GPs on paper ask most before going digital. If yours isn't here, ask us on a demo call.

Yes - no UK law requires a private practice to keep electronic records. The duties are the same either way: keep records secure, retain them for the required periods, and answer subject access requests under UK GDPR. The difference is how much work those duties take. On paper, finding, copying and sharing a record is a manual job; in Jump, the record is searchable, access is role-controlled, and every entry carries an audit trail.

From handwritten notes to a coded record.

What changes, category by category.

Which one fits your practice?

No big-bang scanning project required.

Start coded from day one

Bring documents as you go

Patients rebuild their own history

Questions, answered.

See a coded record do the filing.

From handwritten notes to a coded record.

What changes, category by category.

Which one fits your practice?

No big-bang scanning project required.

Start coded from day one

Bring documents as you go

Patients rebuild their own history

Questions, answered.

Is it still legal to run a private GP practice on paper notes?

How do we move years of paper history into an electronic record?

What does an electronic health record give a private GP that paper cannot?

What does it cost compared to paper?

How long does it take to set up?

See a coded record do the filing.