Hi, sorry, long post!I had to cancel my holiday in July on the day of departure as I woke up with terrible left side groin pain, coupled with a painful right knee which I had had for some time and I could hardly walk, never mind negotiate the trains, buses, plane and 30 steps up to the apartment we had booked. I saw my GP and she discounted an inguinal hernia and thought my knee pain was due to my back and sent me for XRays. My left hip is "preserved" but there are severe arthritic changes in my lumbar sacral vertebrae and facets.
Meanwhile I upped my pred from half mg to 5mg and the next day the pain, including the knee pain, had gone. The GP agreed with me that the hip problem was PMR and said so on the insurance claim.
Now the insurance company want further evidence in the form of my full medical history, which they say I can get from the NHS website. However, I can't see any means of downloading this, plus having looked at it, it gives very little information. For example, under GP consultations, it just records the date but no further details. I want to make sure the GP recorded that the pred worked and that it was therefore my PMR that caused the problem. Also my rheumy had discharged me in June and his letter said all my aches and pains at the time (knees, shoulders) were down to arthritis. I disagreed and stayed on half mg. But his letter stating all this IS on my records! I'm worried that I won't get my holiday money back!
The surgery said they can't send my full history, and that it may take over a month to send a summary.
Any suggestions please?
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Broseley
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Just had a look at my GP history. It’s not obvious if you can download it. Have you got back to the insurance company and said that you have not been able to download it? If the insurance company wants to query it, can’t it ask for your medical record from the source? Why can’t the surgery send a full history and if it is so easy for you to download it, why can’t they? Are you speaking to admin staff who deal with communications all the time or receptionists?
Have you tried asking your GP to make sure these details were clearly recorded on your medical record? You can also ask for a copy. Just because the Rheumy said it was arthritis in June doesn’t mean that you didn’t flare in July. Has the GP clearly said that you were incapacitated?
Thanks Snazzy. I'm at the surgery now waiting to speak to someone. I can't speak to the GP without making an appointment which has to be a week in advance. I don't want to wait that long. If there are none left you have to try the next day and so on.
Further to below, I spoke to a receptionist. They said no admin people were available. She couldn't work out why I couldn't see my notes on the NHS app, just a series of conditions mentioned under each consultation date. Another one came to help. All my permissions are ticked, so they can't understand it. However, she reassured me that the clinical lead is sorting out getting my records to the insurance company and that my GP has continued to record me as having PMR and will continue to prescribe pred.
What a palaver. The admin staff at my surgery don’t tend to come out into the daylight and I have to speak on the phone to them. Anyway, I hope they follow through.
I can see why. I imagine they would spend their whole day dealing with queries in person if they didn’t instead of getting on with sorting out the issues that pass their desk. I do find that it can be exasperating when one has to go through a number of frontline people and opinions in order to get to the solution. I think it started with the insurance company telling you to merely download your history from the NHS app, but perhaps I’m wrong.
looking on the NHS app it shows under Health Conditions only one condition diabetic macular oedema. It doesn’t show diabetes t2 (in remission) or even PMR. I have declared my conditions for travel insurance but if asked to download it they would find very little.
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Tapering advice please!
pmr advice
ADVICE PLEASE
Any advice please?
