Getting blood test results from GP

[carer999]

I spoke to my GP's receptionist and asked for a copy of my blood test results, rather than on previous occassions being told "Normal". The receptionist looked at the results and siad there were a lot of tests there. She then said she could print of a copy but had to show it to the GP first to get her approval for me to have a copy. Is this normal and what can I do if the answer is no.

[fbirder]

I'd be fairly upset if a receptionist handed my records to anybody. So it's probably true that the doctor needs to OK it.

You may be able to access the results online. Check your doctors web site to see if they mention this.

nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/re...

[carer999 in reply to fbirder]

Unfortunately online access to results is not available at my surgery

[fbirder in reply to carer999]

I'm hoping mine will soon be adding that facility. They already allow you to request repeat prescriptions (yeah! B12 jabs at the click of a button) and to book appointments. But the system is, apparently, going to be updated April 25th. Fingers crossed.

[clivealive Forum Support in reply to fbirder]

Mine's the same fbirder  with ability to do repeats & appointments with the doctor.  

However I can't book an appointment with the nurse for my injections, and other info is extremely limited and it would be great to view test results on-line.

As for keeping fingers crossed until 25th April won't that make typing difficult for you?

[Laura5 in reply to clivealive]

Have you asked your surgery recently about online access?  I only ask because I had access to book appointments and repeat prescriptions and assumed that once results were available online it would happen automatically on the same website. However, I found that I needed to go back to the surgery and reapply for online records access and it was on a completely different website.

[clivealive Forum Support in reply to Laura5]

I did ask the receptionist at my surgery on Monday when I had my b12 injection Laura5   and she simply said "We don't do that on-line here".

Maybe as fbirder  says something will happen on 25th April.

[Ashweb901 in reply to clivealive]

In the states the test results at my property to which I have a right. I paid for the test; it’s my health information. Whenever I say this, they fax it to me with no guff!

[clivealive Forum Support in reply to Ashweb901]

I do now have an online facility with my surgery here in the U.K. via which I can order repeat prescriptions and book up to two appointments with my doctor. Sadly there is very limited medical "history" available and if I need a print out of blood tests I usually ask the doctor when there for an appointment.

I think it is down to the individual practice as to how much information the give out online.

I hope you are keeping well - I'm still "clivealive" at the age of 77.

[Galixie]

They can charge you a fee for printing and mailing the results to you, but they can't legally keep you from obtaining copies of your own test results. It is normal practice that your GP's office will check to make sure your GP has actually bothered to review your results before the office will mail you a copy. Even that isn't really necessary, it's just common.

[Sleepybunny]

"said she could print of a copy but had to show it to the GP first to get her approval"

As far as I know this is fairly standard to check with GP and is probably just a formality.

I think the only situations in which they can refuse to give you results is if the doctors believe it would cause you harm to do so or the info wanted contains info about someone else. I'm sure patients could appeal if this happened.

I think you can also ask to be shown records on their computer system but my personal feeling is that its better to have the copies.

If there are a lot of blood results it may even be cheaper to ask for a copy of all your medical records. A surgery should be able to tell you how much a set of your medical records would be and may even display the charges somewhere in the surgery.

One thing I have found is that it's a lot easier to access records at GP surgery than accessing hospital records which seems to involve an application to records office.

Following links about accessing medical records in UK.

nhs.uk/chq/pages/1309.aspx?...

nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/re...

nhsmedicalrecords.org.uk/me...

[helvella in reply to Sleepybunny]

We have read of some earlier schemes for letting patients have access to test results. Some of them have simply explained to patients that they may see un-moderated ( :=) ) results. Most patients seemed capable of handling this.

Is it really worse for the psyche to receive an actual result, even if bad, than worry another day or more about what the result might be?

With so many medical issues, the patient knows that something is wrong and simply wants to know what or how bad.

[carer999]

Thanks for all your comments. Despite my worries I was able to collect my test results today.

[Maudsnorts]

Yes, although you have a right to the information, some GPS like to either ring you back to go thru the results, or if the receptionist is sending them out to you, they check that the GP has seen them and has taken any appropriate action.