Psamathe wrote: ↑26 Nov 2022, 2:17pm
I has a weird GP consultation earlier this year where I wanted them to record a "lack of need" i.e. that I didn't need something. GP was helpful and I ended-up dictating what he wrote on my record and when I said "I don't want to put words in your mouth ..." he responded "they are your medical notes and
you have the right to see them anyway".
That said, when my current condition started I did get a Patient Access online account so I could access test results online without troubling the GP practice and it's been a surprise how little of my GP medical record & GP requested test results are available through Patient Access or the NHS app.
Ian
I have paper copies of my GP records which are fairly comprehensive (~300 pages IIRC), but not complete. I also had a much lower level of access to online records, up until they decided they didn't like me publishing excerpts from them, then it got restricted further. Summer last year I happened to be on the phone to the practice manager, so I asked her if I could have the access reinstated: "Yes, of course" she said, and I heard her typing. As soon as I put the phone down, I went to look, and found that she'd blocked my login altogether, so I couldn't even order prescriptions.
There then followed a month of her denying that she'd blocked me, during which time she gave me multiple new passwords, none of which worked. When my next prescription was due I suddenly got my account back, but with the user name changed, and no more access than when I asked a month earlier. When I asked why the username had changed she denied that too, even though the change log is visible to me on the screen. My access to her email account has now been blocked too.
You don't have right of access to your records, they can withhold anything that they can unilaterally argue will cause "harm", and nobody's in any position to challenge it, because nobody's allowed to know what they're withholding. You can apply to the court under Section 6, but if they're allowed to give confidential reasons the judge, I don't see how that will get you anywhere other than a lot poorer. You have the right to put your notes on your records along with theirs, but my local hospital's policy is to put them in a sealed envelope so that they can't be read.