As a journalist, my partner fought for the facts. Yet the truth of his own medical condition was kept from him | Charlotte Blease

Most UK patients can't access their records online. As a result, the end of Henry's life was made needlessly traumatic

• Henry McDonald obituary - Northern Irish journalist and author

In February, my partner, Henry McDonald, who wrote for this newspaper, lost his fight with cancer. I say fight" because those were his words and, as a journalist, Henry chose them carefully. Reporting on the Troubles in Northern Ireland for more than two decades, and some of the worst atrocities that befell this part of the world, he knew more than most that words mattered. Above all, Henry stood up for those without a voice - the victims.

In the UK, doctors are failing to do the same for patients. Henry was one of them. Across this country, most patients still don't have access to their online medical records. Many doctors are against allowing it. As part of the new GP contract, NHS England announced early in March that all patients accessing primary care should be offered access to their online records, via the NHS app and other portals, by October. The British Medical Association opposes the move, marking yet another delay in an endless saga.

Charlotte Blease is a research affiliate in digital psychiatry at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and at the Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University