Sarleon

I didn't inform my UK GP of my move to Spain, so I am wondering if I missed out on something important I had to do...

My concern is that the doctors here have none of my medical notes/history -shortly before I left the UK I had a stream of diagnostic tests done which uncovered a medical condition, which although not life threatening or particularly serious, probably could do with being monitored in the long run as it 'could' lead to other conditions later on...

Has anyone managed to bring their medical notes/history/test results with them, or do we effectively have to use our excellent command of Spanglish to explain to some poor unsuspecting doctor what is wrong with us

lynnxa

actually we took all ours to the states when we lived there - i think we paid something like 10 quid each for a potted history - then lost the lot in a hurricane!

strange thing is, no-one has ever asked to see them here til a couple of months ago when dd1 had a medical for school

must e-mail the old surgery & ask for copies of vaccinations - I'd completely forgotten til just now

Sarleon

That's unfortunate about the hurricane!

Ok - i'm back in the UK for a long holiday over christmas, so I will pop into my old surgery then and see what they can do. I thought this must be the case, becuase for people who are say, diabetic, their history would actually be quite important to any new doctor that they go and see!

Rosemary

If you had talked to your doctor prior to leaving he would have provided you with a printout of your medical history and a list of the results. Maybe you could contact the surgery and request this to be done, however they will probably only post it to a UK address.

When we looked into sorting out a doctor here we read that they would need the medical details translated into Spanish but I found that my doctor preferred to do her own tests. Also when the results came through from the new tests they had used different units of measure.

Rosemary

Rosemary

We were told to go to the doctors and request the print out 6 weeks prior to leaving, the doctor organised the print out and we picked it up from reception about 2 weeks later.

There is not normally a charge for this information.

Rosemary

lynnxa

I'm sure I had to pay

probably depends when & where

spain

get your notes from yuor UK doc and take them to your local doc here, they will refer you to a specialist for your condition so you can be monitored - thats what they did for me when I came over (similar situation as in I didnt have a life threatening condition but was monitored carefully and the hospital here has been very good and kept a careful eye on me), all notes were in English obviously but they worked it all out from the blood results

Justlookin

You can request copies of your GP records (an entitlement) but they can charge up to £50.

You can also request copies of all of your Hospital records. Again £50 and this includes everything including copies of x-rays, MRI's etc. The films are now usually supplied on a DVD or CD disk.

Although the Act says up to £50 most now charge this however few records they provide.

Many try to get you to fill in a formal request that they send in response to your original request

jdr

Then if the Spanish doctor needs them you will have to get them translated.
Such a lot can change in a short time, so just leave it to your new doctor to decide what your problems are.

spain

yes if I remember rightly I was charged 10 pounds

Justlookin

That was the maximum under the old legislation.

Now it's going to cost £50 in most cases. They figure if it costs them more on another request charging you that amount for 3 or 4 pages evens things out.

poshnbucks

I understand your concern however here in Spain I have never seen so many tests carried out as a matter of course my near neighbour has checks every month because of gout and blood pressure. Mrs P has had a term in Hospital and her pre hospital care was first class with every test given pre op even a heart scan. As stated above let your new Doc deal you can always point them in the right direction with your UK notes however because of the growing threat of legal action each Doctor tends to start a fresh.

lynnxa

I'm not paying 50 quid (twice) just for proof of vaccinations for 2 kids - they'll just have to believe me

in any case they had some jabs at a private docs in the states & I have no idea who that was, so the doc here had to believe me about those

Rosemary

There has been a misunderstanding on this thread about what you can get from your surgery. If you ask for a copy of your records or individual tests it will cost you anything up to 50 pounds because this is the legislation and is because it is not just a case of copying things.

However your doctor can provide you with a computer print out which gives a medical history which should cost nothing or at least very little. This woul list dates of operations, medical attention from surgery and the medication that you are on and will also include the results of test. It will not have full details regarding operations or attention just the fact it occurred.

So it very much depends on what you need.

Rosemary

SueG

That´s what we brought with us and I think in December 2006 costs us 23.00 sterling for each set. The only time I have used them is with a routine blood test for my thyroid and one of the results was not what was expected but when I showed the doctor my notes he could see that it had been the same for the last few years!!