To expect an earlier appointment

Doodledog

growstuff

Riverwalk

I just tried to check my records - couldn't get access!

I can't either. Apparently, GPs can opt out of giving their patients access to most records, including test results. It's all in the small print.

They can, and they can also withhold them from individual patients if they think that it is in their best interests.

I can't see from your posts how this might apply to you, growstuff, but if yours are being withheld and others' aren't you will have a right to know why.

I asked about it. The practice has decided it doesn't want any patients to have access and apparently it's allowed to do that.

muffinthemoo I don’t want to interpret things, and I know there is no pass/fail element - I would just like to track things like repeated blood tests, so that I can monitor my conditions.

The GP wouldn’t need to interpret them either, but it would do no harm for them to be recorded, in case they contraindicated any medication for other problems that may arise.

When I look up my record on the NHS app, and click on 'Test Results' I get the message that 'You do not currently have access to this section'. Same message fro 'Health Conditions'. I will take these up with my GP when I next have to see them.

They’re all there going back to 1989

Why 1989?

Ahhh, see, the consultants do not want the raw results sent to the GPs as they want to do the interpreting of the results themselves, rather than expect the GP to do it or even the patient themselves. Which tbh is probably fair enough. Most tests or diagnostic procedures aren’t “pass/fail” anyway. At the worst example, if you could see your own X Ray images as soon as the radiologist could see them, would you interpret them the same way as the radiologist? (I am advised by friends and family that radiology is more of a black art than a science hence the choice of example!!)

There are obviously well informed patients who can interpret certain results as “good or bad”. I have long term anaemia and know from a quoted result whether I am presently in bad nick or not. Likewise, diabetes patients are very well informed of their ranges and know a poor Hb1ac result straight away. But most things present a complicated picture, especially if a barrage of tests are being run at once.

I agree it would be helpful to be able to see the past letters that have been scanned into the GP system. There have been a few letters in the past that I didn’t receive a copy of and would have liked to have seen myself.

Thanks, that makes sense.

I still think it would take very little time for results to be sent to the GP, though, and patients could see them from there. Now that we have email and other digital means of communication there is surely no need for a consultant to dictate the results in letter form to a secretary who types it up and posts it to the patient? It's an antiquated system, and must cost a fortune in staffing and postage.

Doodledog

Does anyone know why the online records don't show hospital results unless they were ordered by a GP?

I had some tests done yesterday, and they won't go to my GP, so won't appear on the records, and I won't be able to see them - I'll have to wait for a call or letter from the consultant, which experience shows takes ages (months at times) unless there is something urgent.

I don't understand why the two sets of records can't be held in the same place, and why patients can see one lot but not the other, particularly now, when we are expected to take an active role in our care.

In short - the law. In law, your GP records are the property of your GP partnership, whereas your hospital records are the property of your NHS trust/NHS board.

This is probably anachronistic in 2021, but the sheer scale of the data handling operation to find one system that could handle being used by every GP practice and every hospital every day and worse, the scale of attempting to digitise and upload all existing and past records to that system would make even the bravest faint at heart. Massive scale government IT projects in the UK have a terrifying history and this would not be one that could fail to go live on the agreed date, or fall over and delete pretty much its entire database as NIRS2 did.

Doodledog As JaneAinsworth says I do believe the hospitals and the GPs use different systems. However, my daughter gets her hospital results using the hospital app. It might be worth asking at the hospital if you can have access. We are all entitled to know what records are kept about us under the data protection act. You can write and ask for them to be disclosed. The authority keeping them then has a reasonable amount of time to produce them.

growstuff

Riverwalk

I just tried to check my records - couldn't get access!

I can't either. Apparently, GPs can opt out of giving their patients access to most records, including test results. It's all in the small print.

They can, and they can also withhold them from individual patients if they think that it is in their best interests.

I can't see from your posts how this might apply to you, growstuff, but if yours are being withheld and others' aren't you will have a right to know why.

Doodledog

Does anyone know why the online records don't show hospital results unless they were ordered by a GP?

I suspect hospitals use a different computer system. My record didn’t show hospital treatment.

If there was something seriously wrong they would have seen you immediately or sent you to A&E. That they are so laid back about when you see them is a sign that there is nothing to worry about

When DD had a blood test during lockdown last summer and the results were serious, the doctor was on the phone to her immediately, she was told to go to the pharmacy as soon as the phone call ended, the pharmacy were waiting with her prescription, although they did check with the GP because she had been prescribed 3 times the normal dose of the mecessary drug, and the GP had said, yes, 3 times the normal dose. I think they were hoping to avoid the immediate hospital admission, that would have occurred pre-COVID.

The inoculations on my accessible record are the ones I would have had if the current ones had been available from 1944, on the dates that they would have been administered if they had existed. Worth double checking, kittylester.

So it looks as if I had the polio vaccine some years before it existed, and the measles vaccine a couple of years before I had measles.

The other available records are confined to drugs prescribed over the last few years, which give a clue to what I was suffering from, but as a set of comprehensive records they are laughable.

Glad all is well sunseeker. Count yourself lucky that you are not with our surgery where the receptionist gives your your test results, and generally in the hearing of whoever is standing at the desk in the vain hope of getting an appointment "Hello Mrs GillT57, this is the Doctor's practice, I am ringing to let you know that your syphillis test has proved negative" OK, a slight exaggeration, (not had that test), but you get the gist!

I have been able to access my records for a long time. It saves so much time for everyone. Blood test results appear within 48 hours. However , I did have to prove my identity at the surgery, fill in a form and wait for a couple of weeks for them to be uploaded. Might be worth asking again.

Does anyone know why the online records don't show hospital results unless they were ordered by a GP?

I had some tests done yesterday, and they won't go to my GP, so won't appear on the records, and I won't be able to see them - I'll have to wait for a call or letter from the consultant, which experience shows takes ages (months at times) unless there is something urgent.

I don't understand why the two sets of records can't be held in the same place, and why patients can see one lot but not the other, particularly now, when we are expected to take an active role in our care.

Riverwalk

I just tried to check my records - couldn't get access!

I can't either. Apparently, GPs can opt out of giving their patients access to most records, including test results. It's all in the small print.

Our GP doesn't upload our records so not all do.

That's such useful information janeainsworth, thanks.

My Innoculations are on my record Jane from the year dot. It's a bit freaky really.

I understand sunseeker. I hate waiting for results too. It elevates my blood pressure too in the moment.

Just received phone call from the Registrar. Apparently my cholesterol is slightly elevated but not to any great extent and she recommended switching to a different statin. My blood pressure is on the low side but again she has suggested halving the dose of the Ramipril. So basically nothing to be concerned about. I think if she took my blood pressure this morning it would have been through the roof!

Thank you for the replies - I live alone and just needed to "talk" to someone

I just tried to check my records - couldn't get access!

Haha! My liver’s fine thank you Riverwalk

They’re all there going back to 1989

Did that include your LFT's jane?

YANBU but who is the registrar?
I found out yesterday that I can see all my medical records on the Patient Access app.
I’d been for a blood test & emailed the practice to ask them to email me the results.
Got a terse email back saying they no longer email results to patients, but I could look at them online.
They’re all there going back to 1989

Hope your results are ok sunseeker