can my mum see her hospital notes whilst on the ward?

[hospitalstay]

My mum is in hospital and wanted to see her ward notes for example to see what pain killers she is on and how her leg injuries (which occurred since arrival on the ward) had been logged. She has been told she is not allowed to look until after she is discharged via a 40 day turnaround request. Does anyone know if this is correct? Surely there should be paperwork she can sign to enable her to look whilst on the ward if she is certified as of sound mind (which she certainly is). Thanks

Read my post again since you care to comment. Never once have I mentioned HCPs. So you can cool your jet now.

Yes, my apologies - I did not go back and check the posts, and mixed you up with @Ivyblu, who said patients need a nurse or doctor to explain them. However I still think anyone, who has studied Classics, can understand medical jargon? For instance, I don’t know what fibula means to you, except you’ve learnt top down, it refers to a bone in the leg, whereas I see in my mind’s eye a brooch and the image of the lower leg springs to mind, in bottom up processing! Same with vagina means the sheath of a sword - as prick (or spear in Latin) is a common euphemism for penis, it’s not hard to see what vagina refers to!

@CocoLux why do all the uneducated and misinformed think they have a right to things. You don't. End of.

I read my maternity notes when I was given them in the waiting room for a maternity appointment. Then when I had my baby I wanted to read my notes to establish what had happened during a complication. There were some untruths in the notes which I requested they remove.

Forgot to add…I requested a copy of my notes.

What did they say when you asked for the untrue statements to be removed? I also had this problem and it is actually illegal to remove things from medical notes. I was able to put in a note of amendment and they were really nasty about it.

That question was for @dutysuite

If I were you I would telephone the ward - ask to speak to the nurse in charge and ask to arrange a meeting with the Dr looking after your mother. If you don't get any satisfactory response I'd then ask for a call back from the ward manager, if that's unsatisfactory, then find out who the matron is and continue to escalate until you get to speak with a Dr.

Or another option would be to find out who her consultant is and telephone his secretary to schedule a meeting with him/her or one of their team.

Definitely! I always tell pregnant women I know to take some photos of their birth notes on the ward :)

I've had a chronic condition for thirty years, and will have it with ever increasing suffering for the rest of my life. I've seen countless doctors, taken many types of medication, tried different sorts of therapies. I've been treated by some excellent medics and some awful ones.
It's my body. I'm the one who is affected.

I'm not uneducated or uninformed.

Being ‘cared’ for by people with this type of attitude is reason number 1 on my list of why being polite and following the rules is a good way to end up with a suboptimal medical outcome.

If only I only had one example of a family or friend being dangerously treated or neglected due to relying on medical staff knowing and doing the right thing. Even the very good ones are under far too much pressure. And talking about the good ones, interestingly they’re often the ones that welcome the questions and feedback, even when a mistake has been potentially made, vs the ones who hold information on a need to know basis.

What I, and certainly my friends and family know, is to question everything (when there is someone to question, ha) get all the information you can and have someone to advocate for you if you’re not well enough to do so. And whenever you can, take a photograph of your notes.

Surely if these file are confidential and can not be accessed under data protection then they need to be locked away in safe storage. If not its a data governance issue. I was challenged for looking at my mums file, if it's left out and not stored away safely I'm assuming it's not protected by data protection and therefore accessible.

🧟‍♀️ 🧟‍♂️ ZOMBIE