NHS app

[Pmb57]

Hi all, I hope everyone has had a good weekend.

I’m wondering if anybody knows if what appears as a consultation on the NHS app matches what is written on the system the GP’s use?

To give some background I had an appointment about a mole like mark on my leg. GP sent me away with steroid cream as though it might be eczema. However my notes on the app just show the prescription being given but no notes to support it. When I had a follow up appointment two weeks later the GP advised he thought it was vascular and to stop the cream and return if I was worried, again there’s no notes to support this advise. At the same appointment the GP asked if he could help with anything else 😳. I took the opportunity to request my thyroxine prescription was changed to reflect my preferred brand. The GP agreed to my request but again there are no notes to show the discussion and agreement, just the amended prescription shows.

To cut a long story short I ended up having to have the mole like mark cut out as a dermatologist thought it was a possible melanoma. Turns out it was a basal cell carcinoma but I now have a fair size hole on the back of my leg!

l’m trying to decide wether to take this up with the practice manager or let it go. If the GP’s system is what is on the app and I tell a GP at an appointment what I’ve written above they are going to think I’m a big fibber!

Thank you for reading. Any comments will be much appreciated.

[crimple]

Pmb57 you raise a very interesting question. I would have thought that the gp you consulted should have written something on your notes. Was it a GP or was it a PA,? I wonder if you should speak to the practice manager about the GP ? My notes always say something about the main reason for my consultation.

[Pmb57 in reply to crimple]

Hi crimple, thank you for replying. It was a GP who didn’t update my record but now he’s on long term sick leave. The first consultation and follow up was in 2022 and the surgery was July this year after I thought the mole/mark was getting bigger. Recently notes have always been applied, I suppose since 2022 they have been more consistent.

[Poppy_Ann]

hi there, I have looked on both the NHS app and my local Doctors app "Airmid UK" and both have items missing, when i notice missing items from the appointments list on my local Doctor i just put a note in my records which stays there, also I have noticed that what they do put in is not the truth, I have had 3 DNA (did not attend) when on all 3 it was the NHS's fault so i put a note next to each one, the first one was after i asked for an appointment and was offered a choice of two one in the morning and one in the afternoon i took the morning appointment and attended early as i always try to later that day the office called me to ask if i was going to be late so i told them what had happened but they still put the DNA on my record the second was after i had had an operation on my foot which had a infection i went to my local doctors to try and get some antibiotics but my doctor called the hospital and the doctor there told me to come to a&e and he will come down to take a look as soon as he saw it he admitted me but i had nothing with me no phone or money and i could not inform anyone to let them know where i was plus i had an appointment at my local doctors in 3 days i kept asking everyone i saw to call my doctors and tell them i would not be attending in the end one of the nurses told me that it was all sorted and there was no problem when i managed to get the doctor in charge to let me go home for a couple of hours to pick up a couple of items like shampoo, towels phone charger tablet money etc when i looked on my records i saw that no one had informed the doctors to let them know i had been admitted so a second DNA on my records, then a couple of month later i was referred to the heart specialist as i kept getting out of breath after very little work i was put on the emergency list to get a quick appointment 6 months later I received a letter stating that I had missed my appointmen so would be removed from the list, I told my doctor that I had not received any appointment I checked my SMS message list and my email list as i never remove them and i had not received any notice that i had an appointment plus i checked both the local doctors app plus the NHS app and nothing was there plus our local paper had a story about people who only received their appointment letter after the date had passed due to the post office not delivering the mail on time a couple of days later I received a new appointment along with the letter for the first appointment which was 6 weeks after the date of the first appointment but even though I never received the appointment letter before the appointment I still have a third DNA on my record, if they had put the appointment on the app like normal or sent a text message like normal they still put it down as my fault in my records i have a message stating the reason why i did not attend.

also i have seen items like "the patient refused the diabetic foot examination" when i did not refuse the treatment what had happened was at the end of my appointment the nurse said "Owe you have tights on we can leave the food examination until next time" i replied "its not a problem I can remove them in a couple of seconds" but she said don't bother it can be done next time" so again a note that was completely a lie, I bet most people do not check their records and never see the inaccurate items in it i tell everyone that they should check them and challenge items that are not true, I think that if my record has 3 DNA's then a lot of others will be the same so when the doctor puts up the numbers about how many people miss appointments you should look with a pinch of salt.

[Aurora12 in reply to Poppy_Ann]

My surgery has recorded 2 DNA's on my record.One was a phone appt. (no call rec'd; he texted but it was too early an appt to speak to Reception (before 8am). The second one I received NO /( not even missed) call. In both cases I pushed to have them removed (both out of my control!) SINCE they were listed as the TOP 'active'Health conditions' for all to see on hospital referrals! PlUS, GP's policy was to write to pts. with threat of removal from Practice after 2 DNA's.

[Pmb57 in reply to Poppy_Ann]

Hi Poppy_Ann. Thank you for replying. Oh my you have been through the mill with your appointments. As far as I know I don’t have DNA’s on my record. On the old system our surgery used I had one and that was me cancelling an appointment at least a week in advance! I did questioned it and they said nothing could be done but it was quite a while ago. I have been checking every time I go to the GP’s now and unfortunately I’ve had quite a few appointments over this summer. 🙈, hopefully on the up now. 🤞🏻.

[Aurora12]

That appears to be bad practise on their part? I'm sorry, I can't answer your Q - but I dud just want to add that my practice has massively increased the NUMBER of 'consultations' on my record using ANY reason for such! e.g. them chg'g an . appt. time by 4 mins, a Admin msg,etc. but the main one is recording EACH different item of a blood test - AND results as SEPARATE 'consultations'! Presumably they receive funding for each one recorded?

[Pmb57 in reply to Aurora12]

Hi Aurora12. Thank you for replying. I have lots of little consultations from admin staff when they have had to access my notes too. Test results and GP consultations are listed separately on the app and I can also see upcoming hospital appointments. I have no idea if they are paid per note applied. Just a thought the appointment system could be linked to your GP record to update automatically when a change is made 🤷‍♀️. I would definitely get the DNA’s removed as you’re not at fault. It’s difficult enough getting an GP appointment in the first place. Enjoy your day.

[Aurora12 in reply to Pmb57]

Hi Pmb57; yes, I got them both removed, thks (

[Poppy_Ann in reply to Aurora12]

Hi there, at my practice most of the time they do not enter anything on your record, if you look at my record it looks like I have not attended in years, even looking at my medication record there is nothing on it it looks like I am in perfect health yet if you look in my drug draw it is full, in a morning I have to take 13 tablets and at night I take 14 I wonder why I do not rattle when I walk, last month I had to call every chemist in the area trying to obtain my main pain killer Dihydrocodeine 120mg i always put in my request early each month and the chemist delivers them to me when the last month's start to run out I open the next ones several times recently when I open the bag I will find something missing when I call the chemist and tell them I would get the reply that they are out of stock why they do not notify me when they drop them off is beyond me it's not as if it would be hard for them to do they have the script printed out and the pharmacist has to sign that it is correct it would take nothing for them to put a cross on the missing items, most of the time when they do not have any in stock they could replace them with double the amount but half the strength which is what I normally do if I can find them but I have to get a new script for them, it makes me wonder how they can run out the companies that produce them must know how many that they sell each month.Sorry for the moan but once I start I cannot stop.

Regards Poppy Ann.

[Pmb57 in reply to Poppy_Ann]

You don’t need to apologise. Your health is importance and if don’t keep on top of everything related to it who will? Sometimes it helps to have a bit of a rant. I’m fortunate, I only take thyroxine and a use a HRT pessary which I don’t usually have a problem obtaining. I did have a hic cup when I was diagnosed with rosacea in May and couldn’t get the antibiotic gel I was prescribed at my usual pharmacy. I did manage to get it at another local pharmacy, it was at one I don’t like to use, but hey Ho needs must. Take care.

[Agitator23]

My medical notes on the NHS app are a joke. All sorts of events and medical interventions missing. No mention of hypothyroidism yet despite endo diagnosis. Missing surgical interventions, vitrectomy, skin cancer removal, retinal tear, abnormal kidney function tests - the list goes on. I'm about to bring it up with the practice.

[Pmb57 in reply to Agitator23]

Agitor23, Thanks for taking the time to reply. That’s appalling the amount of information that is missing from your GP records. If I was in your shoes I would definitely be speaking to the practice. Since I’ve been able to view my GP notes online I always check the notes correspond with what was said at the consultation. I’ve not gone as far as looking at older notes. Good luck getting your notes corrected.

[Afaghieh in reply to Pmb57]

Hi all

I also have those problems. One is very serious. Having written to GP and practice Manager since heard nothing. In fact is an criminal offence. So I sought the help of Patients association waiting result.

[Pmb57 in reply to Afaghieh]

Good luck. 🤞🏻 I hope you get the result you want.

[Sparklingsunshine in reply to Agitator23]

I bet GP's are cursing the directive that we should have access to our notes. All sorts of oddities and inaccuracies will be revealed.

[Pmb57 in reply to Sparklingsunshine]

Yes I expect they hate patients having access.

[Lovecake]

I used to have the Patient Access app. This was ok, but I wanted more info on there. I asked the receptionist and she said I had to change to the NHS app. I have a lot of info on my app. It’s not perfect and I don’t like the blood results as you can’t print it out or see a nice graph. Plus they don’t put the ref ranges on things if you get a list over a number of years.

But I do have letters on there and my GP is pretty good at writing notes. On a recent visit I said I was concerned that because I get my T3 from a private endo that it’s not on my list of medications. I didn’t want to become ill in the future and someone not let me take it. So she has written on my medication list - 12.5mcg Liothyronine daily, private prescription. She also added “adverse reaction to soy” on the allergy tab. It makes me extremely poorly with dreadful migraines and it seems that some liquid tablets along with the estrogen I was trying have it.

I think you can ask for more information to be available to you on the app. It’s not perfect though and we still have a prescribing pharmacist in our place who loves to remove/change things without speaking to the patient first. I do feel that they think we are all stupid and know nothing about our own health needs. They are certainly wrong about that, especially when we have forums like this to turn to.

So I’d suggest going into your surgery and checking you have full access on your records if you haven’t done so already 😊🧁

[Pmb57 in reply to Lovecake]

Hi Lovecake. Thank you for replying. I do have full access. I can see test results, consults, upcoming hospital appointments and use the app to book GP appointments and change hospital appointments. I’m just missing the notes for the two consultations in 2022. Apologies I omitted the date in my original post. Recent notes are pretty good., so it might be a historic thing 🤷‍♀️

[Lovecake in reply to Pmb57]

Then I would say it’s because no one bothered to put it on there. I’m sure if you go in and ask, someone could add them for you 😊

[Pmb57 in reply to Lovecake]

I will ask but first need to see if another system is used along side the NHS app. Thanks. 😀

[Me2U]

Hi I sympathise with you, as I had this problem 2-3 yrs back. Like you i saw my gp who dismissed my concerning facial skin lesion saying as if it was nothing. About 18 month later I returned feeling more concerned than ever as it had got bigger & red with broken skin which wouldnt heal; two different dr's looked & i was told to "go home & put moisturiser on" I was very unhappy & felt it wasnt 'right' so booked a private dermatology consultation The consultant suggested various options one being curretage (cutting it out,like yours) they sent it for checking & turned out to be Squamous Cell Carcinoma! I was so thankful i had followed my gut feeling,but cross too as I'd had to pay quite a lot for the procedure etc. & my own practise ought to have diagnosed correctly & referred me Nhs. It has left me with no confidence in my doctors practice (they misdiagnosed me previously & i became seriously ill) Re NHS APP I cannot access it,as it hasnt accepted my photo consequently i have no access to my records anymore. The previous version let me see test results & consultations but were v.brief 'notes' and stated that only certain info would be allowed to be viewed in any case. Whose body & health is this I ask! The patient ought see & know everything in their notes.Whose body & health is this I ask?!!

[Pmb57 in reply to Me2U]

Hi Me2U. It’s very much your body and life and I agree we should see everything.

Your case is much worse than mine and it’s a good job you listened to your inner voice, we don’t do that enough nowadays. I was very lucky that I had an appointment with a GP with dermatology training and she fast tracked me to the hospital dermatologist. They cut it all out hence the not very nice hole in my leg. My friend who sees a private dermatologist had a biopsy first to confirm a basal cell carcinoma then was referred to her NHS GP for treatment with a cream. She has a mole check done privately each year as the NHS don’t do them. She went to her GP about a bleeding mole which turned out ok but the GP told her to get checked as she has loads of moles and at the first appointment they found a melanoma.

[Yostie]

When I first received a printed copy of my medical records, I had a "termination" listed. I specifically requested to have this removed even though it was dated 40 years ago!

Our surgery puts everything up on patient access, so I can see that the notes are not accurate. Also, seen email responses from endo to GP, they say one thing at your appointment and in the written letter and another to the GP!

[Pmb57 in reply to Yostie]

Hi Yostie. Oh my that’s terrible especially as you asked for its to be removed. Recently the notes are better but the earlier ones are briefer in my case. I do have full access.