Hi all

Does anyone know whether I have to request my medical docs from my GP before I leave for Canada in April? I know the chances are slim of getting registered with a regular doc when I move so if I don't take them with me, what happens to them?

Thanks

Hi - you don't have to take them. In fact you probably wouldn't be allowed to because they remain the property of the Health Trust (not certain if this applies outside Scotland though). You can ask for a summary printout which will include any significant issues and a list of regularly prescribed medicines - this may help any future doctor. HTH

Sorry - also meant to say that in Scotland anyway they will be sent to one of several large storage departments and they are kept for three years I think it is for adults. Children's records they have to keep until the child would be eighteen, or so I was told.

The content is your property, the medium on which they are stored it the property of the heathcare provider. You have a right to copies of your medical records unless the doc thinks your mental health will be adversely affected by knowing the content.

However you don't need them unless you have some complicated medical history

Take a list of your current meds, dates of previous surgery, major illnesses, innoculations. Reports of any screening, pap smears, mammograms etc.

[QUOTE=farjojo71;8285272]Hi all

Does anyone know whether I have to request my medical docs from my GP before I leave for Canada in April? I know the chances are slim of getting registered with a regular doc when I move so if I don't take them with me, what happens to them?

Hi there.

We requested a copy of all our GP notes and Hospital notes (2 separate processes/requests) in the UK before we left. Only took a few days.

My thoughts were that once we were here - we would have a new doctor who wouldn't know us from Adam - so having some background on us (kids etc) it would be helpful. It has been helpful to confirm what jabs the kids have had etc. The doctors haven't asked for it - but for peace of mind for me it was worth it (and an interesting read hahah)

Personally - I wanted to have them rather than whether we needed to have them...it cost 25quid for the photocopying of 4 lots of records and another 15quid (sorry no pound sign) for the local hospital to copy some records.

After a certain timeframe the hospital gets rid of your records - so if you haven't had anything major in the last 8 years, Doctors records will have a copy of any requests info anyway....if you have and want all the info then request those also.

Just my take on it.

Thanks for the advice guys....think I will call my surgery today and ask them about getting photocopys. Luckily neither myself or the children have any major medical problems, I just wondered what happened to them once we had left the country.

hello , I am going to okotoks to work as a gp in april, if you are near by and need a doctor. if you email me, private note , or whatever it's called I can give you my details. x

Save yourself the money hun
Our doctors here never wanted them and they make you have a pap test anyway and go through your history.
I supplied the kids red books and that is all they wanted

I will give you the details of ours when you come in, they are really nice and BB uses them as well
Never had a problem

Also they start the breast screening at 40, so get ready

Sound advice, for the children red books were fine, for me I it was different as I have had twelve operations so I had my records copied, for OH we did not bring anything as he never goes to the Drs. In total in cost under fifty pounds, I have also been asked to get hospital records for one of my operations as it became complicated, something that I was never told, but it shows in the Drs records.....


Not easy to get when your in Canada, will have to try and sort that one in the Summer when in the UK.

Not hard to do, contact your hospital and ask for the records, they will photo copy them and send them over.
i have just had to get some medical records for someone and mine was alittle harder, but they posted them here to me in canada with no hassle, takes about 2 weeks

Jojo - you ask what happens when you move, they go and get held in a central location, so if you move back to the uk at any point they can be recalled, i asked that question for us.
luckily we havent had any major hassle in health so didnt see the point, our doctors took my word for everything anyway.
Must admit they are lovely in town

If you ask them to be sent to a hospital then you shouldn't be charged.

Thanks as always LB......but then again, you don't know much about lampshades lol

Oh can't wait to get my bosoms out and get them squashed flat

Now you think i would have the amount of houses i have looked at in the last few weeks BUT for some reason i cant remember lights...OH says no they dont seem to do them, i know ours doesnt have them, but we have cheap stuff from the buiders

Really? Which province are you in??

we are in alberta, my doctor mentioned it to me the other day, but i was aware of it as a friend had told me