To wish my GP practice had told me about this upward trend earlier?

I tend to do one every 6 months or so, depending on how much I have needed medical assistance. I agree its ludicrous, but that's the system. It was just a suggestion for OP to get a more complete view of her medical history.

And then….. what happens next time you have a test or an investigation?

It is totally ludicrous that patients should have to resort to SAR to obtain something that is rightfully theirs.

The reason that Scotland and Wales doesn't have the app, is that they could, but chose not to, as the devolved governments, apparently, didn't want NHS England having access to their citizens health data, and it's an NHS England developed app. Heresay, but who knows?

Wish we had the NHS app in Wales

They don't, which is why it's always wise to get copies of the results rather than a "fine". It's your health, we need to take personal responsibility for it.

Get the NHS app. The test results are uploaded to it and you can monitor personally.

I asked for all my records, not 1 thing, the whole lot.

Right and who's got time to put in an SAR every time they get a blood test? Just because it's technically legally possible doesn't mean the average person can do it every time they need some info. Just give us the NHS app already, please, someone 🙏

When these results are available on the NHS app you could have checked yourself, so you could have known anytime. I always look at my test results.

That is wrong, you can have a copy for yourself. I completed and SAR and recieved printed copy of everything the first time, and a CD of scanned documents the second time. This is information about you, they cant prevent you from having it.

When I asked for this I was told I would need to complete an SAR and wait for several months, at which point I would be allowed to come into the practice and sit with someone who would access what I requested on the computer. I wasn’t able to get any kind of download or printout, and I would have to be specific in what I was asking for at the time.

Did you know you can ask your GP for a copy of your medical records? You can have it all, or specify something particular ie blood pressure. They are obligated to provide them and usually charge £10 fee. YANBU your GP should have told you. I similarly have to go see the nurse for an MOT and she always tells me if my tests change, in any direction. Its not about whether they decide to treat it, its about you being informed about your own health. If it were me, I would complain.

I have used a blood pressure medication to treat migraines for several years now. As a result I need to go for blood tests and a BP check every 6 months as my BP tends to be low on this medication. The blood tests are mainly to check my kidneys but they do other checks as well, after each test I just call and they tell me everything's fine and I go again in another 6 months.

This time after my check I got called back in to speak to the doctor and was told I have high cholesterol and prediabetes. I asked him what could have caused the problem so suddenly and he said it hadn't been sudden and that if he looked at my blood test results over the past 6 years he could see that my cholesterol and blood glucose levels had been creeping up but its only now just crossed over into clinical diagnosis. I am fit, a healthy weight, a non smoking, non drinking, active woman with ideal blood pressure who eats a healthy whole food diet so when I was told my results were normal I thought that meant I was healthy not that things were getting worse.

I'm not mad that it's happened because these things do happen of course, I'm 50 now and there is type 2 diabetes in my family but I just wish they had told me earlier when this upward trend was noticed and I could have made some changes to prevent getting to this level. My GP just said they don't treat at anything below clinical diagnosis level and anything below that is in the healthy range and therefore normal.

Is it so unreasonable to think that they should flag up something like this to patients?

When these results are available on the NHS app you could have checked yourself, so you could have known anytime. I always look at my test results.

I asked for my recent cholesterol levels at a face to face checkup yesterday (booked in to discuss my high cholesterol that was picked up accidentally) and they told me they couldn't access that part of the system so I had to book and see a GP!

I was offered yesterday's appointment as I received a call from the surgery recently to tell me my cholesterol was severely high and they wanted to start me immediately on a high dose of statin.

I was hoping to find out more about my cholesterol levels and why they might be like this/ how you manage it but the nurse I seen had absolutely no idea why I was there or that I was even on statins! She was only told to check my weight, height and take some bloods.

I'm really not looking forward to the Monday morning hunger games scenario, to call for an appointment and actually find out what on earth is actually going on with my health.

Like you, we have no online systems or appointment's, results etc. It's all very much still stuck in the dark ages and I'm in a major Scottish city.

If you don't laugh you will cry. I feel your pain OP.

I agree OP-it would have been beneficial to be in charge of your own health and know the results of your blood tests.
I’m in Scotland and my GP surgery prints off my blood results without any issue. However I would be prepared to strongly defend my right to know my own blood tests results if they refused me.
It pisses me off so much that NHS Scotland can’t just adapt the app available in NHS England-as usual the SNP has to make everything here ‘more Scottishy’ and meantime we lose out!

@MyDeftDuck As has been said now by myself and multiple other people these services are not always available in Scotland and the culture towards requests for test results can be downright hostile. My GP practice offers neither access to test results, appointments or records via the website or SystmOnline. The only option they have is for repeat prescriptions.

Sorry op, it's really rubbish. With some good diet changes you'll be able to get it under control. British heart foundation has some great resources on cholesterol lowering diet, and ask to be referred to your local t2 diabetes program like xpert.

If your lifestyle is as you describe in your post, there isn't much you could do in terms of change to prevent these changes from happening. Sometimes this isn't preventable - there's a big genetic component as well as lifestyle factors involved, and it sounds like you've got the lifestyle bit covered, which only leaves genetics, and there's nothing you can do about that.