Accessing records on line

Hi Worriedwife, After I posted yesterday, I remembered that the only documents and results shown in our NHS app were from GP referrals so I investigated our hospital group’s portal system. It seems easy enough to obtain hospital documents on there, the only problem being that there’s currently a 4 month delay for them due to demand.  Possibly bad news for anyone reading this who lives in Essex! 

We had been hoping that hubby could access his BT results on there, which he never sees, mainly to find out his latest PSA reading.  Obviously the system doesn’t work like that though.  He did sneak a look at his last chemo session but it was the only result not shown.  It would seem that his oncologist prefers to keep the good or bad news for his reviews.

I have difficulty getting a GP appointment let alone getting access to my records, I now have to travel 30 miles to get a PSA blood test because my local GP's secretary says the NHS will not pay for it!  

Our NHS, in Scotland, seems to be falling behind the rest of the UK in a lot of areas.

I'm told that I will not get the results of the PSA test, unless there is anything of concern? Perhaps we are now looked on as one of  Schroedingers cats in a box.

My GP has asked me to write to her, why? Because I made a request for a telephone consultation, was given a time and date, but now says she cannot find it on her system.

Safeway's, that is ridiculous!  GP's these days don't give a jot (and I didn't swear) about the patients.

I bet Sir Chris Hoy doesn't have this trouble, he'd be on the news straight away if he did!

Have you written to your GP??

Do you have the NHS app?  That would probably come up with a 'cock and bull' excuse as well.

I hope you get something sorted out soon.  Fingers crossed  

Hi Safeways 

our GP surgery got in touch with my OH oncologist to say they wouldn’t do his regular bloods but he replied with yes as it’s an agreement and quoted . So he continues to get his blood tests at our local surgery . Yes they won’t call unless there is an issue . But I contacted the hub and gave an agreement to phone the next day and the nurse will phone back with the results. 

we also put a letter into the surgery asking for all correspondence since diagnosis . It took them nearly three weeks and gentle reminders but we got them. We have to do the same process any time we want them. 

NHS Scotland seems to be well behind other countries from initial blood test to actually getting an MRI or seeing a consultant.  We were well outwith the stated guidelines for fast track cancer diagnosis. 

If you need more information regarding the guidelines let me know and will look them out 

regards

Liz & OH. xx

This is a copy of the  generic letter . Hope this helps as it’s just not NHS Lothian. 
Safeways  

Oh dear.

https://www.nhsinform.scot/care-support-and-rights/health-rights/confidentiality-and-data-protection/health-records/#accessing-your-health-records

I will be writing to writing to my GP, soon!

It's not the current political parties fault, they have only been in power for a few months. it has been the previous one's,  ( thirteen years! ) , however, the one who was in before them, at that time didn't do enough to save it.

Sadly, the NHS hasn't been a priority, I know this too well,  as I am a  retired NHS nurse, and have seen changes over thirty years, and not for the better!

It makes me sad, to think how wonderful it once was, people cared then.  Unfortunately , in many ways that has gone. Sadly, due to cutbacks, its now on its knees,  and it will take many years to recover, certainly not just months. 

Somewhere I read ‘the NHS is a victim of its own success’. So true!

people are being kept alive longer and so are living with multiple conditions requiring a complexity of treatments. This means more and more demands on NHS resources versus the lack of Government ability or will to provide those resources. 

I think this then impacts on the front line staff - those who do the hands on care. They are under so much pressure ( time , mental, sheer numbers coming through the door, bureaucracy etc etc ) that they reach burn out and can no longer see things from the patients’  and families’ perspective.

As a retired nurse myself, I see a lose-lose situation - declining job satisfaction for those who are there to provide care and declining patient satisfaction for those who are seeking the care we used to get.

I am not a politician and don’t know the answers. Our generation paid our taxes as part of a contract with the Government that we would get NHS care from the cradle to the grave. That was at a time when there were no such things as scans, robots, expensive drugs, organ transplants etc etc. But, have successive governments kept their side of the contract? Or have we got to pay yet more tax? Or, more drastically (and dangerous!)  should expensive treatment be withdrawn beyond a certain age?

it’s ok to make sweeping suggestions, but all of us here know that we have grabbed every chance to use the latest medical advances to prolong precious lives. 

sorry me in philosophical mood this am!

 Lucyloulou do you not think the current government has messed everyone around enough in the 9 months they've been in?

Nurses and ex-nurses will know only too well what has gone wrong but they are the ones who have to deal with the public.

Is it too many managers?

I just hope the NHS gets sorted out sooner rather than later.