Decided to go through my medical notes such as they are, and blood tests again now I'm more sensible again.
All hospital consultations are missed off and consequently diagnoses. Oh, and there is a gp consultation noted that never took place. Basically my notes appear to be a mess.
What really annoys me (I have been severally ignored, brushed off, mis-treated, misdiagnosed and undertreated) yet someone has the time to catagorize me under the John Hopkins Needs Score as patient group 4 'multimorbidity, low complexity'. Yes, low complexity because they certainty do little to help/treat me. gggrrrhh😬🤨.
Its Sunday and the sun is shining atm. Sorry, I needed to have a little gripe. 🙂
Written by
Wheat
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I've got access to my records and there's a lot of mistakes. I apparently had an intranasal flu vaccine a few years back and my parent was present. I didn't know that people of my age had those! I've also had a diabetic foot check when I wasn't even in the same county, let alone at the surgery. There are also 'did not attend, referred back to GP' entries for hospital appointments that I never had in the first place. At one point an appointment for a routine mammogram was cancelled by the hospital and rescheduled. According to my notes, I didn't turn up, therefore furthur appointments would not be sent!
Please get it off your chest. Enjoy the sunshine. Tomorrow email the Data Protection Officer at your Health Board or Trust. Their name is usually on their website. Inform them of the following :-
Dear [their name],
Re: NHS number: Medical Records with the Unique Identifiers of NHS number: [Your NHS number] and Date of Birth [Your Date of Birth].
I wish to bring the following to your attention, in the above records, please note :-
1) There is missing data from :-
i) [time, date, consultant, specialty, location of clinic or hospital];
ii) [time, date, consultant, specialty, location of clinic or hospital];
iii) [time, date, consultant, specialty, location of clinic or hospital];
n) {{ keep going, until you have listed them ALL, in date order, earliest
to most recent }}.
<I do not know how many are missed so I have used n>.
There is misinformation of an appointment at [time, date, name of GP, name of GP practice].
As a consequence of data not been obtained correctly, stored and transferred correctly, it has affected correct diagnosis/diagnoses and delay in diagnosis/diagnoses. Therefore, treatment, management and Health Related Quality of Life Score (otherwise known as an SF-8 score). {{please keep this whole paragraph in the email and write it verbatim}}.
I am fully aware of GDPR (2018) and the DPPEC (Data Protection, Privacy and Electronic Communications (Amendments etc) (EU Exit) Regulations) (2019). Therefore, I would be very grateful that I receive the missing data, in hard copy to the following address :-
[First line of address]
[Second line of address]
[City/Town]
[Area]
[Postcode].
Under the Freedom of Information Act (2000), you have 30 days to comply with my request or reply to give me an explanation. Pleasure ensure that you remove the erroneous data which I have highlighted in Point [x] the appointment at [time, date, G.P. surgery].
{{I do not know the value of this, so have denoted x as I do not know how many hospital consultants’ appointments’ data is missing }}.
I do hope that you adhere to my requests. Failure to comply will result in me escalating my concerns to the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wilmslow, Cheshire.
Thanking you in advance.
Kind regards,
Your full name, (title) any letters of qualifications.
cc: Your M.P.
All the best, 🐳
P.S. On a personal note, apparently, I had an affair with my Personal Tutor whilst studying Computer Science and Information Systems. That is how great the good old patriarchal system can be. They simply did not agree with his work on Artificial Intelligence. It was too advanced for their liking. So, they made something up to try and get rid of him. He kept his job but his marriage broke down from all the ‘stress’. There was only 2 females on the course. The other girl was very nice, me, I have an edge. 😜
There is always going to be meanies in the world; it is the reason I have a tusk. 🤣😂
You made me laugh because it would be ridiculous if it were not true! Very similar happened to me and as a married female undergraduate some lecturers refused to teach me as it was a “waste of time” - as I would soon have babies! They tried to fail me but fortunately two senior people stepped in to help.
My GP notes are a mess too - so much medical cock up omitted and yet a lot of stuff that’s untrue! I will be writing a similar letter to Wheat when I find the energy - everything seems so negative at the moment - sorting out problems, fighting for rights, fighting for health.
Me, I have a whole collection of witticisms. If lecturers refused to teach me as it was a “waste of time” situation, I would sashay up to them. Giving them my love eyes and purr, Oh, I love your tutorials, so much. In fact, I’d kiss your face off but I’m a lesbian.
Then walk away, turn back and signalling my hand, mouth, Call me.
To my mates we’d laugh our heads off. I’m Welsh why do you think I have this outrageous accent. 🤣😂🤪
The lecturer is embarrassed and confused with the mixed messages but excited too. 👍🏻
Thank you Narwhal, your template letter is so amazingly helpful. I shall use it. I was aware that many others here have incorrect records when I wrote my post. Also just how potentially harmful that can be.
Your personal note is almost beyond belief! Good that you could stand up for yourself, me I was naieve when young. Trusted medics. Not anymore though too late in some instances.
You see doctors (clinicians) are unsupported. There are several databases in the NHS which they have to flick in and out of which interrupts the diagnostic process and treatment process.
If you turn up at a hospital appointment, the hospital computers might not show the information that your GP practice has and vice versa. This is not doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, dieticians etc fault.
The Trust or Health Board have something that is called an Information Governance Team. It is their responsibility, not your GP, receptionist, consultants to ensure your notes are yours, nothing is missing, duplicated, stored, retained correctly. They are administrators, have clerical roles and some are managers.
Another department is Information Technology. They install new software, fix hardware, install new devices such as printers, computer keyboards, computer screens and remove old devices.
Clinicians - doctors, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians, paramedics etc receive training on how to use the different computer packages. It is part of an induction package, usually a day but due to staff shortages ‘bank staff’ or ‘locum doctors’ are relied upon. They do not necessarily have the knowledge of the crazy NHS I.T. systems.
Another department is Finance and Commissioning. These guys can be responsible for budgets and are involved in buying ALL the resources that clinics and hospitals that are required. GP surgeries can be partner led which I will not confuse the discussion with.
Often as a midwife, I would offer women iron supplementation prescribed by me but courtesy of the NHS. I was completely honest, ‘It is cheap and nasty. It will wreck your stomach.’ Then explain it was constipating. I would further that if they could afford Spatone then that would be the better and gentler option. Then I would ask them what they would like me to do.
One poor GP has publicly admitted that if they prescribed hydroxycobalamin as the patient NEEDED then they would be fined again. They had done so previously and had been fined. On the second occasion, they were not only concerned that they would be fined but they would be at the receiving end of disciplinary action.
Is it any wonder that this year, doctors went on strike ? It was not just about the pay but the conditions they work under. Me, I just would shrug and think, I don’t give a BLEEP.
I’m Welsh and hard. Must dash, off down the mines to dig for gold. 🤪🤣😘
Come, come now, Wheat, TV watching, I have no time for that. I’m too busy making sure the men toe the line. They don’t call me Miss Whiplash for nothing. 🤣😂😘
Oops, sorry, if you want a little giggle at my expense, have a listen to the Rolling Stones’ Sympathy for the Devil.
I am a pianist, drummer and have worked abroad in some far flung places. Sat in a Vietnamese airport coming back to the U.K. it was Halloween. I played Trick or Treat with myself.
Amazing - Treat again !!!
I threw in a couple of Tricks for good measure but then said, Okay, you can have a Treat because you have been tricked. 😘🤪
On the subject of cheap and nasty - I had a prescription for vitamin d3 and calcium (carbonate) and the pharmacist recommended not to take that form calcium as it was as useful as eating chalk.
I decided to skip calcium altogether on the basis that some of the largest animals get their calcium from plants. I take d3 and hope to conserve what calcium I have, & eat lots of leafy plants and almost no meat. Still working on that one!
For Calcium I use calcium-fortified soya milk (same calcium content as dairy milk), calcium-set tofu, green leafies like Kale/Broccoli and a 250mg Calcium supplement, JUST in case. 😁 Via Cronometer I hit the RDA with this even if I have a day where I dont get my greens in (the horror).
Oat milk is pretty bad for Calcium unless its Calcium fortified. Fortified soya milk with no added sugar is the strongest choice purely from a nutrition perspective. But you like the taste of oat milk, for sure you can get the Calcium and Protein that are comparatively lacking, from other sources if needed. Nutrient density isn't everything of course!
Thanks interesting. Oat milk has similar calcium to cows milk. Unless organic in which case there aren’t any added nutrients. I think lack of iodine in all vegan milk is an issue. Cows milk contains it but very few other foods do.
One of the many benefits to me being active here is to know that I am not being singled out. Not that I do not take it personally.
I as best I can go with it is a behavioral problem on their part supported by the payment structure and that they do have the power to save lives so they are seen as super human.
I find them to not really be very bright and have incredible regurgitation of information skills.
There are three kinds of patients. One believes that the doctor is always right and all that needs to be done is comply and that is as good as it gets. One understands they are often incorrect and harmful. One that dies believing the doctor is always right, often sooner than later. 🙂
Yes it’s good to know it’s a generic failing and not personal. I didn’t have the sassiness of Narwhal as a young person - I was too naive to see the bigger picture. Not now though albeit a tad too late!
The main thing is we must learn to trust our own instincts and not to need the “approval” of medics. I wound be dead by now at least half a dozen times if I had trusted them - they never seem to learn from their own mistakes or those of others as their powerful self belief appears to be they are above the fallibility of making a mistake.
Clinicians have HUGE responsibilities. There’s not just the illnesses, diseases and conditions. There is a very dark side that we do take extremely seriously. It is not appropriate to discuss it here. We have to interact with the police and social workers. I will leave the rest for you to work out.
Hello Wizard, I used to trust and comply with gps advice and it worked ok until I was very ill .
For some time, I ve preferred to treat myself.
Regretfully now the trust is completely broken. I know medics are under many varied pressures and constraints. Understanding this does not make them any less dangerous, probably more so.
Thanks Wizard, I will let my sister, brother in law, my friends, their friends, my brother in law’s brother, his father, my other brother in law’s father. Fortunately, my own biological father is dead but they’re all doctors. 😁
I was mistaken. We do have midwives in NH at least. I was seeing if a nurse was still certified and and saw that there is a specific licence for midwives.
I find your last paragraph chilling but true. Most medics are way out their depth with regard to to current health developments. Maybe some admit it to themselves but others seem not to know and pretend otherwise. They are the arrogant ones who can do much harm.
I have a gp who has admitted the limits of her knowledge but is willing to treat patients as far the NHS permits. She has said that she can’t oppose guidelines and while I disagree I do respect her honesty.
Aside from the fact that doctors are weighed down by all manner of things not directly concerned with medicine I do wonder if the complexity of some people’s issues is just beyond the capabilities of a single person to diagnose and treat.
Hello, yes its quite a complex situation. I agree with you comments. The patient I believe suffers and a culture of treat the symptom(s) not the cause is ultimately more costly and harmful.
I totally agree. The words, I am sorry I do not know, came out of my mouth very regularly. I said it with confidence. Then I further, I will try and find out.
The ‘diagnostic process’ can be lengthy and requires great in-depth analysis, discussion, other specialties, which lots of different tests.
One of the fundamental keys of this is ‘active listening’. If any clinician cannot undertake this, then there is something very wrong with their practice.
To ensure there is NO miscommunication, the clinician is to repeat the information back to the patient/person to ensure no misinterpretation.
‘May I just clarify - this, this and this ?
Then, May I examine you please ?
Then the clinician’s critical thinking is, I need to exclude x, y, z by blood tests, scan, referral.
In the meantime, for example, ‘I can see you are in pain.’
(A person has winced, moaned when I touch a specific body part.)
What current analgesia are you taking ? Is it effective ? What makes the pain worse ? What makes it better ? Is it there all the time ? Is it nagging ? Burning ? Gnawing ? Stabbing ? On a scale is 1 to 10 what number is it ?
We are building up a Clinical Picture.
For myself, I saw a private GP, I asked their work history which I found impressive. I asked them a question and they said, I do not know. From that I knew they were an excellent and safe practitioner.
It took 2 years 7 months and 17 clinicians to diagnose that the valve between my small and large intestine does not work properly. Of course, I knew what it was ages before it was actually diagnosed because I have examined (palpated) many abdomens.
I kept my mouth shut when one award winning consultant examined mine. I recognise a walk of arrogance. Therefore, I do not even bother to waste my breath engaging with them. They find out in other ways how they totally messed up. 😉
Our family motto is, Any doctor (clinician) who claims to know everything is dangerous.
Yes humility would be a useful addition to a medics list of qualifications. As with your private gp, a friend saw a consultant who told her that he didn’t know much about an aspect of her condition but would research it further in his own time, and present his findings at her next appointment!
yes I was astounded reading your post, but not terribly surprised, I just got access to my notes, and having been to this GP surgery for over 30 years there is plenty.... NOT
My most recent consult with the GP and a load of messages sent to a mobile I asked them years ago to take off my records as it wasn't in use anymore. Nothing prior to March this year. I feel like a non person....😵💫
Oh gosh, more 'wrong' medical notes. Narwhal has written a very fulsome helpful template letter you might use. Also, I know the feeling, but we do count!
I have full access to my hospital records but regarding my gp - all prescriptions over the last twenty years are listed and accurate, details of my consultations are absent. 🤔
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