NHS Clinic Follow Up, Full Of Inaccuracies

[Sparklingsunshine]

A bit off topic but thought I'd ask, has anyone ever received an NHS clinic follow up letter that seemed as though it was talking about a completely different person and certainly wasnt what you remember?

The Bronte sisters would have been proud of the work of fiction that is this letter. I'm going to challenge it but not sure how.

I'm particularly annoyed that the consultant stated I was happy to be discharged from the podiatry service, when actual fact I only emailed them yesterday morning ( before receiving the letter) to ask for another appointment as the pain hasnt improved. I was told to go back and see him if it didnt. At no point did he mention discharging me.

I just wondered how to go about it. As the late Queen said "recollections vary".

[Brightness14]

I am sorry I can't answer your question but you might find this amusing. Only yesterday I received an NHS text advising me to have my next Covid injection. I have never had one in the UK anyway.

Apart from the fact that I have been living in France for nearly eight years it's not only laughable but costing the NHS money.

I have informed them several times and they have a record of my living abroad too?

[HealthStarDust]

Not just letters but notes too. It’s always been like this.

[greygoose]

I live in France, and at the end of a two weeks stay in hospital I found out my 'notes' were a work of complete fiction! Everything I'd said had been twisted to mean something else. For example, I was asked if I took iodine for my hypothyroidism (🤔🙄😣) I said I had taken it thirty years previous, but not for long. It said in my notes: patient is currently taking iodine. Sigh.

And after an out-patient visit to the cardiologist, the letter to my GP was in the same vein. He took my BP in both arms, and told me the results: both low but one lower than the other. In the letter it said that both arms had high blood pressure! No wonder we don't get correct treatment!!!

[Bertwills]

I recently discovered that I could read the notes from my GP & nurse consultations on the NHS app. I’m amazed how little of what is written is accurate.

I’ve actually booked an appointment to try to get the information corrected. I’m not sure I’ll succeed but 🤞. It’s an odd state of affairs. Horrifying to think that major decisions are being made on information so badly recorded. I’m beginning to think I’ll take a written list of all the important points to my consultations so that I can hand it over so that at least the spellings, dosages etc are more likely to be recorded accurately.

[Sparklingsunshine in reply to Bertwills]

Yes its both horrifying and baffling, I can only assume doctors dont write up notes straight away, forget what was said or mix us up with someone else. Its not good enough.

[Bertwills]

I know old fashioned hand written notes get muddled. I once went to see a GP & his desk was covered in X-rays of “my complicated broken arm”! Not me at all.

I think the problem now is that doctors etc are typing notes & listening to the patient at the same time. Therefore they don’t do either well.

The worst for me was in a private hospital where I was booked in for an endoscopy for IBS. Another patient had the same name. She was having serious abdominal surgery. We knew we were in trouble when they sent my husband into her room. We complained loudly.

I was terrified once in the operating theatre having been sedated to realise that they thought I was having the serious operation. I just managed to tell them before I became unconscious. In future if I’m going into theatre I’m going to write on my body what procedure I’m booked in for. Many doctors do the same. One poor man had the wrong leg amputated.

We were so shocked we added more names to ours by deed poll to make them more individual.

My husband was once sent in the post, by our GP’s surgery, X-rays & full details of a brain tumour of somebody with a similar name. When we complained to the manager she didn’t seem to think it important.

[Sparklingsunshine in reply to Bertwills]

My referral letter to a hospital out of area ended up on my husband's records. I complained and got it removed.

[TaraJR]

I've certainly read letters and notes with mistakes - handwritten, typed and electronic.

If it affects your care or ongoing treatment I think I'd contact them and ask for it to be amended. Maybe just pick the crucial points and let minor ones go? Pick your battles?

[Wua13262348]

Yes. All consultants list the reasons you do not have a condition , and how they arrived at the decision. It is a justification of not investigating or testing you for a condition. They are works of pure fiction, which we as patients rarely see. The version of a letter to the g.p. and to the patient should be the same. They are however different. On the odd occasion that a consultant states a test or investigation needs to be done someone higher up in the chain e.g. blood lab, states it is not to be done. Usually you have waited a year and a half to see the consultant, then his decision is over-ruled.