Missing medical notes or imagined test?

[SquatWeightaMinute]

Do your medical notes follow you from one GP to another?

There is a medical condition that runs in our family, it's hereditary. I should have been screened for this over the years. I was screened as a child and then I vaguely remember being scanned for it again at some point in my twenties or so I thought.

Some other symptoms (low kidney function) have come to light which has been going on since 2018 but I was never told by my GP until last week. I tried to look at the previous scan results on the NHS app and the records only go back to 2017.

I rang the doctor and they have said that there is no record of a scan in the time I have been with them (since 2011) There is nothing at all between 2014 - 2017 which the receptionist suggested means I didn't need an appointment in that time.

So have I

A ) imagined having this scan, it is such a vague memory that it could be the case I guess.

B ) Had it much younger than I remember and the results haven't been brought from one surgery to another

C ) Had the scan and the results have been lost.

Not necessarily. NHS record keeping is not joined up and it is possible if the scan was done at a hospital it never made it onto your gp records.

Could you contact the hospital where you had the test?

My NHS records don't include most of my scans and I've had at least eight in the last two years - although most at a hospital further away. Same gp throughout.

Only time they're referenced on my GP record is when the consultant has contacted my GP regarding them.

I used to think that your medical record held everything but it is simply not true. Hospital scan records are usually held by the hospital and there is usually a letter sent to your GP to update them of the outcome. There are also records with a where to find me pointer so the details are not held on that particular system but can be found elsewhere via the pointer. It is honestly very complicated and yes they do try to simplify it but there are a lot of medical records, maternity, clinics, mental health, GP records, hospital records, surgical records which detail the surgery but also another record if you had had a device or surgical implant fitted, pacemaker, hip etc. So everyone with pacemakers fitted are on a record too.

Have you looked yourself on your NHS app just in case it is on there?

Oh wow, I just assumed that everything is held on your record. There is nothing at all on my NHS App prior to 2017.

Can you just phone the hospital and ask them if you have had a scan there? Would I phone the actual dept?

How long ago did you register for the app? Only ime not everything shows up immediately (e.g. they only registered that I had one child, not the previous one or miscarriages), when I queried this with the receptionist she said that someone has to basically transcribe all the historical paper notes so would take a while (at least months). My other children exist in my records now!

Hospitals are all different, the switchboard should be able to help/let you know their process.

There was old stuff when I first joined (not everything) but some stuff from childhood. Now all of that is gone and only the last few years are there.

They are still transferring records to digital. In time more will appear.