Requesting results and ranges

[Karmine]

Does a GP or Endo have to, or are they required to, give you a copy of your exact test results with the ranges if you ask for them?

[LouiseRoberts]

Info here:

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/NHS_In...

Louise

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[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK]

There seem to be several parts to this question. First off, access to records is covered here:

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/NHS_In...

So yes, pretty much, they do have to give you a copy if you ask the right way (and maybe pay).

But there is a possibility that the reference ranges are not recorded. My own take is that not having the ranges would constitute inadequate record keeping and, while maybe not against the law as such, could be covered by the GMC requirements to keep adequate records.

For things with stable, consistent, universal ranges (e.g. body temperature) there is no obvious need to record ranges. But for things which have varying ranges (and very substantially varying as in FT4, especially) then I would argue the ranges are an intrinsic part of the result and failure to record them is inadequate record keeping.

Whether the GMC or a court of law would agree with me is another matter entirely!

I think perhaps this should be raised with bodies such as the GMC to get a clear statement.

[Karmine in reply to helvella]

Thank you. I thought it might be along the lines of access to medical records, but wasn't certain. I may have to put the request in writing, but at least they can't withold it.

[Glynisrose]

They can charge you for copying the results but they cannot withold them, by law your records belong to you not the doctor!! If you are seeing an endo write to the secretary or even better e-mail the secretary and ask for your results and the reference ranges.

I would doubt that the endo knows the reference ranges, most doctors don't!!

[NBob in reply to Glynisrose]

The records actually belong to the Secretary of State for Health. Patients have a right to see them for free under the Data Protection Act and patients also have a right to have copies of the records. The surgery can charge a fee for providing the copies but the fee must be reasonable. The fee must not include costs incurred by the doctor "checking" the records.

[Glynisrose]

No, records of your health belong to you not the state!! And my surgery will charge £50 for copies of your records!!

[editfmrt in reply to Glynisrose]

If the records are electronic and have been updated in the last 40 days they should definitely not be charging £50. No way - and this makes me so angry. Admittedly some of the stuff printed about the rules is ambiguous and poorly written in my view. But there is no excuse for a GP surgery to get this wrong. In some cases I think it is deliberate to put people off. While I'm having a rant, I'm not too keen how the NHS pages portray the rules either - it is in their own interest to slant what is in their pages. Just look at the way they portray the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid!

Phone the Information Commissioners Office help line. Hopefully you will get someone knowledgeable like I did but they should be able to explain who owns the data - the PCT or the surgery. You can check if your surgery is registered as a Data Controller by searching on postcode in the Data Protection Public Register and they should be as they hold personal data on their own system. This means they have to comply to the principles of the Data Protection Act and are responsible for that data. The principles if the act say subjects are entitled to access.

Oh this continuous fight to get information that we all have a right to see makes me very very angry. As if we don't have enough of a fight on our hands without this utter rubbish.

[LouiseRoberts in reply to editfmrt]

Hi Edit

Actually, there are no rules either way about records held only on computer and updated within the last 40 days!!

Lyn and I spent a lot of time in discussion with ICO on this as we thought it was ridiculous!!

Louise

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[Karmine in reply to editfmrt]

After doing futher research into it, according to here:

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

They can charge £50 for copies of manual records, but only a max of £10 for a copy of records kept on computer only. The most they can charge you for looking at your records, but not obtaining a copy is £10.

It doesn't say anything about 40 days or anything of the sort, the NHS does say you don't need a reason to see them and you can see them at anytime.

However as I've well found out, what the NHS says and what the GP's and other medical staff do in practice is another matter.

[Karmine in reply to Karmine]

A correction, actually it does say if changes were made in the last 40 days they can not charge you a thing for looking at them and not obtaining a copy.

however, they can still charge you for obtaining a copy.

[Hidden in reply to Karmine]

Hi Karmine

They seem to have updated this since we produced our information!

Thanks so much for pointng this out.

Louise

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[lynmynott Partner Thyroid UK in reply to Hidden]

This could well be because we informed the ICO about this!

[NBob in reply to Glynisrose]

Unfortunately it has been tested in court, Patients records are in the ownership of the Secretary of State. It was a surprise to me but that is how it is. The £50 is a maximum charge, not a target. There are regulations and guidance that state what can be charged for, specifically the The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

in there it states that in a case in which this regulation(regulation 3) has effect, a public authority may, for the purpose of its estimate, take account only of the costs it reasonably expects to incur in relation to the request in–

(a) determining whether it holds the information,

(b) locating the information, or a document which may contain the information,

(c) retrieving the information, or a document which may contain the information, and

(d) extracting the information from a document containing it.

Guidance from the Information Commissioners Office states that a doctor cannot charge for checking the records. GMC guidance says that records must be contemporaneous (made at the time) and be accurate so there is no need for a doctor to "check" them anyway. the charge must be reasonable. I estimate that complying with (a) to (d) above should take no more than 5 mins for computer records (£2.00 = 5mins @ £25/hour) and depending on how many sheets of paper around 5p per sheet so I estimate that a surgery should not charge any more than £5 for a copy of computer records.

You can look at the records in the surgery for free and make notes for free.