Are you taking Doctor's notes?
 

Rang my Dr today and asked him if we could have a copy of our notes. he told me they don't do copies and the files are not their property, they get sent to the central office for storage when we leave the country.

Has anyone here got copies of their notes? I am sure people have said so, do we need to take them? None of us have had any major illnesses or anything, but if I need them then I will have to investigate further. Do the Drs in Oz look at them?


Thanks guys!

Hi Tina,
In short no we aren't taking our notes. How I understand it you don't necessarily stay with the same Dr so the chance of them reading through your notes each consultation is slim.

Claire

If this isnt the case then how are you supposed ti be able to look at your records if you wanted to ( i mean in general, not for migration use)
With the introduction of the Data Protection Act, you are by law supposed to have access to all records held on you.
Can anyone advise further

I assume you are able to look at your notes, just not take them with you? The doctor did not say we couldn't look at them, but that they don't do copies of them and they remain the property of the health service.

For some reason I thought most people took them with them.

In theory you should be able to look at your notes but it isn't as straight forward as all that - loopholes a plenty. You have to apply for access and pay a fee.
GP notes are pretty sketchy though and you need to be able to interpret drs handwriting which usually is worse than abyssmal.

Some GPs though do do computerised printouts of a summary of care but these are usually only for the past few years.
Claire

Re: Are you taking Doctor's notes?
 

Tina
We have read previous posts on this forum where people have been given their notes by their GP.
We have also read that some people have experienced the same problem.
In my opinion, surely its important for peoples medical history to follow them. There may be allergies or certain drugs which work better for an individual contained within the notes.
It may be in lingo or medical speak that would go unnoticed if a layman attemted to read through the notes.
I for one will be making a big issue of this if we are not allowed to to take our notes.

Cheers.
:beer: :beer:

Hi Tina,

The general consensus on this forum definitely used to be to take doctors notes in some form. I remember posts where people were asking about prices that doctors were charging for photocopies (and others referred to costs for data protection compliance etc). The consensus may have changed recently though (like the 'whether to take your fridge/freezer?' question seemed to do.)

For what it's worth, I asked a nurse at my GP's and she said that if I want notes they'll put together a summary - whether I follow that up or not I'm not sure (nothing exciting for them summarise :) )

Small question:

I've been to the doctors maybe twice in the last ten years, for minor things eg I had something in my eye and Mum visiting made me go.

I went there only to find the surgery had moved down the road a few years before. Then I got there, and I didn't know who my Doctor was lol. it seems to me half of people in waiting rooms are just clogging up the system - most illnesses can be cured with a day's rest, wrapped up in bed. I never take medicine as it probably reduces your natural ability - as a result I hardly ever get ill. My old man has been ill once in 30 years, it's incredible. We just never get ill in my family - I've never even had flu!!

Anyhow, I've been to hospital a few more times for injuries and they've always given me a note for my doctor - but I've always just thrown them away!!! Does this mean that the record of my hospital visit is destroyed, not noted?

Badge

:D

I have just dealt with this this week. A very shirty woman at my local health authority told me I wasnt allowed to take my notes as 'they were not my property, they belong to the government'. Nice. Instead I can pay a large amount of money to have mine and my kids records photocopied/summarised. Oh, and even though I said 'blah blah data protection act' you apparently are only allowed to see what the doctor thinks you should see.

Im pretty sure that you are entitled to any and all records of yourself held by health boards police etc. under the data protection act.
I think they amended it to cover data that isnt held on computer ie notes, video.

Badge let's see if you stay as healthy when you have a couple of snotty nippers running around:D ( no offense intended just all kids are snotty!) Kids seem to get colds continually and then of course we get them passed on to us!!

Well if the Drs in Oz don't actually require my notes then I may as well not bother. My Dtrs is a very small increpid practice, they don't even own a photocopy so would probably faint if I suggested copying them!!

this has interested me, not that I need the info just yet

found a couple of links
http://www.doh.gov.uk/dpa98/
Go to part 3, don't bother with the link on para 5.1 about fees (page no longer there), instead try (not had chance to read but think it maybe relevent to Drs notes):
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/inside/foi/index.html

Hi Tina,
Under the Data Protection Act you are legally allowed to have a copy of your notes and can see everything on them written about you. If you really want them, I suggest contacting the Health Authority and they can have a go at the Doc; or tell the practice that you are leaving the country, they then have to return your notes to the H.A., then you can get a copy from then.
Quote Data Protection at them - the law is on your side!!:)

If you get them though - check all the pages belong to you! I had 2 pages belonging to 2 different people......:scared: -quite worrying when you read a note saying you spent a week having your tonsils out and you can't remember it!

Do you think it is worth it Polly? None of us have had any serious problems.

To be quite honest, on the basis of the rubbish I got (!!), no its not worth it. I got mine more out of curiosity than anything else, and to prove a point after having a discussion with the receptionist who seemed to think I was asking for the crown jewels!!
If you've had no serious problems, I wouldn't bother. As has already been said you don't need them here; you can tell any doctor your kids medical history, so it probably isn't worth the agro. Mine not only had notes in it belonging to someone else, it had stuff that was the opposite of what had been told to me in the past - doc saying "I told patient ......XX" when I know he told me ".....YY", and completely inaccurate records of stuff I'd told him! Waste of time, and quite scary when you think your treatment has been based on it!

Just one thing to add to this discussion - the situation over here re doctors is that you get to choose which doctor you go to see. So if you settle in one place, you can go & find a local doctor that you like (try them all if you want! ) & then continue to see them as long as you want to. Most doctors work out of a practice, if your particular doctor is sick or away etc, you can usually see someone else in the same practice who then has access to your medical history. However if for some reason you cant see your doctor, you can go anywhere else if you need to eg. if you get sick while on holidays, if the doctors surgery is closed for some reason etc. Also, you can almost always see your doctor the same day, its fairly unusual to have to wait from an appointment (unless you call at 3pm or something). I have just called for an appointment for myself (its 9am here) & my appoitment is for 3.30pm today.

Lastly, over here, if you move, your doctor will send your medical notes to your new doctor. When you find a new doctor ask the receptionist to fill in a form for transfer of your medical notes, they will send it off to your old doctor & they will get transferred. I was with my old doctor for about 13 years, have now transferred the history to my new one as well as the kids (very handy if you have more than one child & cant remember which kid had which illness or reaction to a drug :eek: ).

When you have an X-Ray over here, you take the x-ray's home, and keep them. The Doctor will ask you to bring them back with you for any follow up consultations.

If you have any special concerns about existing health, I would get the UK doctor to write a brief note for any OZ Doctor to look at. Ours did that when we moved over last time.

You don't need to bring doctors notes from the UK, don't waste your time or money. Aussie doctors are simply not interested.

Bring the kids' immunisation records though.

You really don't need your records unless someone has, or has had, a major problem. You do however need a record of the kids immunisations - my Drs just did a print out of those for me.
They also did a print out of my last page of notes for me - half of which I couldn't understand anyway!

Loopy