Well Finally Got my health records : Think I... - Thyroid UK

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Well Finally Got my health records

Polo22 profile image
32 Replies

Think I might be a while getting through them, little peeved that when I collected them the woman giving me them had a face on her like she'd lost a pound and found a penny.

I signed for them and she sort of barked at me " and who will be sharing them with" in an unpleasant tone, I replied they are for me, I am not sharing with anyone as yet. She looked really annoyed , wonder why she wanted to know why I'd asked for them and what I was doing with them, Wish I'd challenged her

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Polo22 profile image
Polo22
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32 Replies
greygoose profile image
greygoose

None of her business anyway! She's only a receptionist, she shouldn't be asking questions like that! Well done for getting your records! :)

arTistapple profile image
arTistapple in reply to greygoose

As per greygoose reply. I was able to get my GP records with no problem. However when I asked for my hospital records I was rather peevishly told (I had not complained about the time it took to get them) “Well there are an awful lot of them”. I think when we go to these lengths, they are thinking that we are about to sue them! I definitely could but I always think, where to from there? As if my relationship with medics, GPs in particular, has not already been broken down beyond repair.

On another similar point, just less than a month ago I tried to get a GP appointment (still another week to wait) and now you have to listen to a long pre-message on the phone, excuses about why it’s going to be so difficult to get an appointment. Then you have to hang on because you are number x in the queue (with a lift in the voice message at the end as if this is a cheerful message). Then finally you speak to a receptionist and have to be very patient as they repeat again that they have no appointments and when you push (a little) they finally agree to make the appointment a month in advance. And all this is your fault - the patient. Who do they think they are running this service for? The paid staff would be my answer.

pink100 profile image
pink100

Better have someone with you when you read them, as you may find some things that are upsetting or not true.

arTistapple profile image
arTistapple in reply to pink100

pink100 it’s a great warning to Polo22 . However it’s not practicable or even a good idea to have someone with you. That is a big pile. It’s almost inevitable that there will be things in the notes that are upsetting. Allow for as much upset as you can handle but initially do it privately. It takes time to get your head into their systems. My executive functioning completely collapses when I look at the notes, even now, because they are truly badly presented (both GP and hospital).

Polo22 profile image
Polo22 in reply to arTistapple

Yes same with me, can't process information sometimes and takes several attempts , lots of swearing usually involved and tittie lips on full alert😂🤯🤔🤣

Pawsedagain profile image
Pawsedagain

I'm so happy for you. I'm only just now recovering some of my medical history from hospital. Since 2016 they disappeared. The hospital asked me the same question.

Miss_Catlover profile image
Miss_Catlover

I would have said that’s on a need to know basis only :)

waveylines profile image
waveylines

Well done! I'd take the receptionists attitude as a compliment. Smile sweetly. Clearly you have rattled them. Clearly she had to do a lot of printing out!! 😂🤣🙄Receptionists are a law unto themselves I find. They can be incredibly helpful or plain obstructive and some are very rude....its a skill! Even an art form! Since my GP Surgery introduced their 'new system,' ringing the surgery directly is pointless. The receptionists simply says you have to fill in the form on the NHS App. It doesn't matter how urgent it is.... (Cos of course if it is you should be at a&e not bothering them.) And if its a prescription, form, if it's an error, form if its a basic question, form, sick note form if it's anything, form. I'm wondering if receptionists are now redundant and no longer required. After all if you do get a face to face app you don't go to receptionist you sign in electronically. Who needs a receptionist!! Maybe that was her true beef.... She' s lost her power, by passed by online!! 😂🤣

My Surgery now employ a doctor to go through all the submitted online forms to triage and respond by delegating or sending you another form to fill in! One I had was checking symptoms and I had to tick one of the options.... Only prob was none of the options fitted and the rent an option for not any of those so had to tick one or couldn't send back. It's full time job... More expensive than a receptionist but no direct patient contact required. You then get a text response or you might be sent a phone or even a face to face (latter a dying species) app. Forget any choice you've no idea who with or when.... Cos if you dare specify on the form then they tell you the wait will be even longer. As for patient consultation...... Erhhh..... Nooooo, old hat, it's extinct!

So smile sweetly. Set yourself up some drinks, food....candlewax & pins!! Hugs xx

Polo22 profile image
Polo22 in reply to waveylines

I have kept empty essential oil bottles specifically for use as witch bottles/protection amulets 🧙‍♀️,

PRJ20 profile image
PRJ20 in reply to Polo22

🤣🤣🤣👍

Otto11 profile image
Otto11 in reply to waveylines

Sounds the same as our surgery only now we don’t get through to the surgery any more. It’s a call centre! They have no idea about anyone dr or nurse etc at our practice so it’s even more complicated. Today my daughter needed to book in with a particular nurse for her Vit D injection but the call centre couldn’t book it as they didn’t know which nurses could do that injection. Long story short she went on FB sending a message to her friend who’s a nurse at a different surgery to ask her to help sort it out. It’s a joke ( but not a funny one). X

waveylines profile image
waveylines in reply to Otto11

Oh noooo.... It just gets worse.... Lol. Sorry to hear this. There is so little care or concern for patients.... If u can't get an appointment it's not their concern...if u can't get treatnent it's not their problem...

Hope she gets sorted soon. 🤞🤞

Otto11 profile image
Otto11 in reply to waveylines

Thanks. She will but why does everything have to be so complicated? It causes so much unnecessary stress. Getting to actually see a GP is another story!! X

Shellian profile image
Shellian in reply to waveylines

My doctor's surgergy has exactly the same system. Modality took them over a few years ago and it has just got worse and worse. Everything seems to have gone backwards and the whole aim seems to be to put patients off making appointments. It is a very sad state of affairs . If the form doesn't work, or what you need isn't in one of the boxes, it's a problem. You are then forced to ring and on hold on the phone, usually for an hour, then made to be feel very guilty as the phone line is supposed to be for emergencies/ urgent calls only (although how they'd get through urgently I do not know 🤔 ?) There are never any appointments that can be booked in advance. I would like to change doctor's because of this system, but all the doctor's round here are owned by Modality now so no point.

I think the government are just trying to make people go private so that eventually we won't have the NHS. It's a sad state of affairs.

waveylines profile image
waveylines in reply to Shellian

It is. It's working too as private consultations are now also flooded with waiting lists.My GP Surgery won't even let you phone them for an emergency app They tell you to fill a form in online. If you can't wait to go to a&e. If you have a temp, feel dizzy or have chest pains go to a&e says their recorded message. They take zero responsibility for your health. None. If you've had an op or are going through any treatment don't contact them contact the hospital.... No matter what.

So if you want your health back you have to pay up.... That's the upshot.

I personally think GP Surgeries no longer offer a service anymore except for reissuing repeat prescriptions.

Oh and they like statins, health checks cos they get extra payments, same for innoculations.

Poppy_Ann profile image
Poppy_Ann

Several years ago I wanted a copy of my records and was asked which ones I needed when I said all of them the woman said "you must be joking" but I said no I need a copy of them all she said that it will cost £25 for the digital ones and £50 for any that were on paper so £75 in total when I went to collect them they started at my birth and went on to my recent visit to the doctor, there was a lot of paper I did not expect there to be quite so much the woman who passed them to me said it had taken her over 3 days to copy the paper ones, so there is a lot of work for them to do so I bet it was the same for you and with the government setting the maximum price at £25 for digital and £50 for paper ones that it costs them more than they are allowed to charge plus at my practice the receptionists are always busy and having to offer copy's at a maximum price and within 14 days it is somthing that they could do without having to provide this service, now I can just log into my surgery and look at or download them all.

waveylines profile image
waveylines in reply to Poppy_Ann

Do they go back to birth online? Mine are only the last 2-3years.

HealthStarDust profile image
HealthStarDust in reply to waveylines

Depends on access and any change in surgeries. My online copy has detailed records for the past few years with one surgery, and data from other surgeries (not since birth) is just coded. But, I think the situation with records is messy when there are several practices spanning different parts of the UK.

waveylines profile image
waveylines in reply to HealthStarDust

Ah.... I've move around during my life. Current GP practise been with them nearly 15yrs... But the 15,yrs isn't all available. I appreciate it's a lot to scan in. We had to do that for all our records (not medical) a few years back took ages but afterwards much of what we did was electronic in any case and increasingly what was sent to us was electronic... So not much scanning.

HealthStarDust profile image
HealthStarDust in reply to waveylines

That’s it. There’s delays in amalgamating the data. Years ago I met someone who was working on a project where all rhe paper records were being uploaded to big data store of some kind and they frequently described problems.

I would love my health data from the day I was born.

Polo22 profile image
Polo22 in reply to Poppy_Ann

No charge at all, zilch. If my GP's actually could find their own Ars** with both hands they would have signed up to all the online stuff and saved themselves time and hassle. Can't access any NHS online stuff as" your GP practice is not signed up to this service" or " you are denied access as your GP has not given permission"

Polo22 profile image
Polo22 in reply to Poppy_Ann

haven't checked yet but I was told few years ago that the first 3 or 4 years of my records are missing I did ask if I could have a reduction on my age then 🤣

PRJ20 profile image
PRJ20 in reply to Polo22

🤣🤣🤣👍

john159 profile image
john159

Well you were dealing with a Doctor's receptionist! And looks like she has been given a lot of work.

chirpysparkle profile image
chirpysparkle

Last week I had an hospital app. with an endocrinologist… a Dr. …requested by the hospital itself, as my cortisol blood test result was high and I have a 3cm cyst on my left adrenal gland, which, due to a misplaced letter in my surgery no one has checked on for 7 years, when I also had RAl for being hyper and a hot nodule. I asked the hospital Dr. for a printout of my thyroid tests records that were on his screen… they were much clearer than any at my surgery…my thyroxine dose is frequently altered…and I am fed up with being asked ‘are you taking them properly.’ My request for a print out was refused with “oh, that would be very difficult “ and I wasn’t quick enough to ask WHY?… as I was still shocked at his statement ‘I have only been asked to check if you have Cushings and asking me to do that is like asking for me to prove are there or aren’t any UFOs.’ He pinched up the skin on my hand and said it’s not thin, asked me to stand up from a flat, hard seated hight chair…you haven’t got weak muscles…(both a matter of opinion but I am 73) and said ‘we don’t do that’ to my request for adrenal and thyroid scans… even when I said but that’s exactly where it hurt when my GP examined me. And he sent a report saying ‘she certainly hadn’t got Cushings and we agreed no further tests were necessary. ‘ As the Queen said, recollections may vary!!! They certainly do. I only got my thyroid dealt with , eventually by the NHS but after so many appointment, always with locums…then one arranged a private consultant who got things moving. One NHS thyroid consultant at another local NHS hospital ( but 40 miles away ) was more interested in my hand contractions than my thyroid and organised a photo session so he could use the hand photos in his lectures. I agreed to that if he would help with my treatment... but I couldn’t even get a copy of the photos.

PRJ20 profile image
PRJ20 in reply to chirpysparkle

WOW! Iatrogenesis at it's best (worst). Whatever happened to "first do no harm"?? 🤔

chirpysparkle profile image
chirpysparkle in reply to PRJ20

If I made a list of all the mistakes made with my immediate..now mostly all sadly late family! And friends who are still fighting to get taken seriously. One had two stage 3 tumours before they would agree there was something wrong.

1tuppence profile image
1tuppence in reply to chirpysparkle

Was he a diabetes specialist by ay chance??????

chirpysparkle profile image
chirpysparkle in reply to 1tuppence

Hello, No idea. He started of by saying he split his time between Wales and Birmingham and had been certified, or some such expression, for 15 years. I had better not say what came into my mind by the end of the consultation…was he certified for or as…? He did tell me a diabetes blood test done was fine and also kidneys, I didn't know they had done those. . My surgery hadn’t told me that and I was glad to know it. I had waited weeks for a GP to ring about the blood tests and all he said was to cut my smaller thyroxine tablet in half…nothing about any other tests.. and he disappeared without even saying goodbye. I thought we had had a power cut and rang the surgery back after waiting a while. The receptionist just said he will ring back if he needs to. Probably the same GP my friend saw this week who got a can of coke out and drank from the can during her appointment.

Otto11 profile image
Otto11

Bedtime reading sorted for the next few years at least. I applied for my hospital ones which they put onto a disc for me but they only go as far back as 2016 when they changed to digital so nothing previously unfortunately.

serenfach profile image
serenfach

I saw a doctor at the hospital where I had asked for my notes. The doctor challenged me as to why I had asked for my notes. I was shocked. I gaily said "oh, I find it fascinating". The fact that her notes were virtually non existent and wrong , and she knew I had seen them and was hopefully embarrassed. I have just sent off for the last two years notes so we will see if she mended her ways. I doubt it.

Medical notes became free in 25 May 2018. So Poppy_Ann , if it was after this - get your money back!

Polo22 profile image
Polo22 in reply to serenfach

I was going to ask about hospital ones, don't think they'll find them , Thyroidectomy Jan 1995. Women's hospital first child born 1991, after 3 early MC's last child born 2009 was pregnancy 26. Ten MC's will not have physical proof , a lot were early 7/8 weeks and there isn't much can be done at that point so didn't attend, realise this is not a great idea. Point is MYGP app just has one MC listed in Dec 1999. Might find something else in huge bundle particularly upsetting is the 13 week twin pregnancy loss not mentioned, or the 12 1/2 week singleton. So many things I just want to make sense of , I know at one point the Women's hospital did genetic screening on both me and hubby , that would be interesting to see.

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