To think the NHS is far too secretive about our health records?

What a drama.

If only a couple of weeks ago there may be a preliminary report but not a full report. When this has been reported on a copy will go to your GP. You can then ask your GP for a copy which they may provide.

Even though at A&E it will still be technically under a consultant. Even if you didn’t see them yourself. The EDN should have the consultant and the requesting doctors names. You can ring the hospital and ask for their secretaries. Although the secretaries would need the consultants authorisation to release what is said in the report. When the report is available the consultant should write to you and your GP with the results. You may not get the full report but a brief summary in a letter. The GP again would get the full report.

PALS will have contacted the consultant you were under to ask for their comments so that’s what they will be waiting for.

If you have completed a subject access request then again this goes to the consultant for sign off.

Again I would be surprised if a radiologist consultant has fully reviewed and done the report in a couple of weeks.

I have sent information to doctors several times before an appt (private) to save time during the appt but they always claim to have not received them, I too always print out a copy. I've no idea how they can be so incompetent.

I had a CT scan a few weeks ago, I was told the results would take at least 6 weeks!
I live in Manchester.

Agree. As long as you can prove it's you, which the app can, then it should not be so difficult. I requested a copy of my neck x-ray from radiology but they told me I need to contact the medical legal department and provide lots of id etc.

While I understand how frustrating this is @whyisthissodifficultffs, I think its worth remenbering that nor everyone is an upstanding member of society like you and I.

For example, medical notes often hold safeguarding data. If safeguarding is raised about a patient toward their child, access would mean being able to see that professional conversation in real time.

There are also many occasions where people with mental health problems may have had information given to services by family members. For example, the Nottingham killer had contact with mental health services.And if his parents had raised concerns with the local trust , he would have been able to access that in real time.

I genuinely do not believe that the NHS are hiding anything , particularly. They generally write down their medical opinions, and you can access them via a subject access request anyway. Of course, there will always be some variation in what they write to compare to what we say to them. However , I think that often occurs not through malice , but through poor understanding of the problem.

I think given the amount of paperwork NHS staff already have to complete, this might lead to an additional administrative burden. When staff feel that they are under scrutiny or people are litigious, they are far more likely to take extra time to complete documentation thoroughly. And this may take away from actual patient contact.

I think there is also a risk that professionals will simply not document things in the clinical notes which they do not want patients to see.

The subject access request is a fairly straightforward process, and one that allows oversight of who accesses your records. Remember they are not "your" records. They are the property of the professional or organisation which holds them.

Agreed. Reading your entire medical history can be really unsettling for some people. Things may be in there that you’ve forgotten. Things your parents have said about you to doctors when you were younger may be difficult to read. The observations / opinions of doctors may be unsettling (I read medical records in my job and there is a difference between what a doctor writes / observes for their own notes and the feedback they give to the patient, for many reasons).
Also you are faced with a lot of complex medical terminology in notes that you may not fully understand and if you’re say reading them at home alone it can distress people who might, for example, go down a Google rabbit hole researching everything they find.
E.g a doctor may have told you “normal scan results” but the report from the scan may include things like “incidental finding of XYZ” (some kind of non harmful thing that isn’t relevant) then a person can start obsessing over that incidental finding and think it’s the answer to all their health problems.

I wouldn’t want to read mine in great detail.

According to the hospital website I quoted from earlier NHS has a target turnaround of 21 days (although ime that can be extended if information requested is complicated).

Honestly OP you are sounding more and more like a petulant child.

Giving you the benefit of the doubt that you are genuinely concerned about something needing to be done urgently/ perhaps you are in pain or scared or something I don't know ...... you would be best to just follow the instructions and do what you have been asked and you will get the information you want. It most likely won't take 28 days - that's the maximum. As so many have said, these procedures are there to protect you.

You've been told by several posters it takes several weeks. Radiographers are busy and even scans for cancer take 3+ weeks. The Dr can see the raw info, the report has to be reviewed by a radiographer to be officially reported. You're not going to be given the raw info, you'll be given the report.You've been told this on the thread already.

Are you in the same pain now that took you to A&E in the first place? If not, sit tight, wait for the report to be available on your app and then you can take it from there. It does take time for the images to be reviewed by a radiologist and the report to be written. Red flags would prompt contact from A&E so if you haven't heard from them after 2 weeks there shouldn't be anything so concerning that it can't wait a bit more time for the report to be available. A SAR right now wouldn't even pick up on a report that's not been written yet, anyway.

They will still want to see ID as part of this process
if you apply for someone else they want a copy of the LPOA too - at least they do with the trust I work for.

they're trusting the process. the process requires you to provide proof of ID to access further information.

The stranger wouldn’t be able to get into the phone without a pin or your face. Then the NHS app asks for your face again… every time I open mine.

Couldn’t agree more OP.

I’ve had to do the same for a second opinion a few years ago and it was like pulling teeth. For my own personal health information!

To add insult to injury, when I finally got the records (on the latest possible date) some of them were quite heavily redacted. Not because they contained third party information (which would have been understandable). Apparently it was because knowing what was there was ‘not in my best interests’! Let me be clear: the issue I was seeking a second opinion on was a bog standard physical ailment. No hint of mental health issues or anything else that could possibly have made me ‘vulnerable’ to the point where withholding my own information from me might, even theoretically, have been a justified consideration. (Although I do disagree with it even under those circumstances.) But apparently it’s perfectly legal for the healthcare provider to decide whether you can be trusted with aspects of your own medical information or not, even if you submit a SAR.

In contrast, I spent some years living in another country where health records belong solely to the patient, who then grants access to the relevant healthcare professionals as needed. Access is transparent, well regulated, and legal action against providers is quite rare. Then again, it is a country that generally doesn’t tend to infantilise or heavily police its citizens in other areas, either.

For example, when you download the form on our local hospital website it states:

A. A copy of a valid passport, driving licence or birth certificate of applicant
B. A copy of official correspondence dated within six months- such as utility bill, TV licence, bank statement etc
C. Letter of consent from the patient authorising applicant to act on their behalf
D. A copy of the Child’s birth or adoption certificate
E. A copy of the Lasting Power of Attorney
F. A copy of the will showing you are the Executor or a Grant of Probate
G. A copy of a Solicitor letter detailing the nature of your claim arising from the patient’s death

and you provide A and B for a request for your own information.

Let's just imagine you leave your phone on the bus.

I'm another passenger but not a very honest one so I pick up your phone.

I decide to have a nosy and I realise you have left your log in details on the app.

Do you really want me to have access to everything?

I didn’t! What is the exact wording on the hospital website?

At this point, I think you're making my point for me. Thanks.

So you don't have a passport or a driving license? I expect next you would be moaning about being able to book a holiday abroad but not being allowed to board the plane without an id...

stop moaning then if you’re too lazy to follow the process. There’s no money needed, just show your driving licence/passport or a bill.

And dh’s was on an urgent pathway

It can take over a month. Dh had one recently and report to gp was about three weeks, fil’s (different trust)was about a month to consultant.