To ignore NHS spamming letters

[Ryoko]

I keep getting letters sent to me by the NHS moaning about my son not having his MMR and if he has please call this none free number and tell us when and where he had it.

I am not phoning them up at my expense to tell them, I don't care first of all the GP knows he's had it and more importantly I was not aware that it was mandatory?. The letters are worded in a such a way that it sounds like it is. plus I have ample experience of how rubbish NHS records are so have no desire to waste my time and money phoning them only to get another letter a few weeks later.

Am I being unreasonable to say a big stuff you to them and let them send as many letters as they like? (I'll just chuck em all in the recycling).

Sounds very strange! It worries me that people have nothing better to do than post crap on here. And that I have nothing better to do than read and reply!!

I'm with the OP on this one. Just seen my health records and it includes loads of errors, including that I had a subcranial aneurysm 3 years ago . Where did they get that one from? .

i have had 4 letters telling me i'm due a smear, 4 times ive rung them to tell them im pregnant and cant have one, every time they tell me its now on the system, its on my file that im pregnant so why isnt it telling whoevers sending me the letters that??

ive had the vax letters aswell, i got one telling me my 12 month old hadnt had any of them, couple of days after his mmr which was the secons appointment for his mmr becuase the appointment they sent me before that was too early for him to have it, so we sat waiting for half an hour for the nurse to say he wasnt allowed it yet and send us home

It's not spamming.

It's targeted and pertinent to your child's health.

If you don't want to phone Child Health (who collate all imms records) then go into your GP surgery and hand over a letter to the Practice Manager or senior GP partner stating that your son won't be having MMR and please annotate his records accordingly. They should then inform Child Health that you have declined and the letters should stop.

I appreciate that record keeping can be inaccurate - the NHS and all the associated departments are a mammoth beast and don't always link in well. Letters and records overlap when sent by snail mail and there's a limit to what can be sent electronically. People also move home and don't inform of any change of address, change mobile numbers frequently, etc.

Also national recall for things like smears aren't done by the GP surgeries but come from the area screening service. All they see is that you haven't had a smear for eg and will send 2-3 reminders.

Sidge she said her son HAS had MMR, just the records have failed

Though yes a request to GP would be simple

Ah I misunderstood, I read it has "the GP knows he has had it" ie he had had it elsewhere (or had singles) and the GP was aware.

In that case supplying the date and details in writing to the surgery should enable them to give the date and batch numbers to CH.

Unfortunately in many cases the onus is on the patient to help us stay accurate and updated - we can't chase them all ourselves! (we have nearly 10,000 patients where I work and we are a medium-sized surgery, not even a large one).

Ryoko, if you're not going to respond to the letters, stop complaining about getting them. How dare the NHS expect patients (and their parents) to take any form or responsibility over the accuracy of their medical records, which are generated from so many places where they provide our medical care. Perhaps they should put all their money into a super-duper computer system that seamlessly collates everything from everywhere every time. Except of course there'd be no money left to provide the medical care. And it's not actually possible.

Get over yourself - you sound like a petulant teenager. You come across as being angry with the world, maybe you should reflect on why that may be.

I think it's pretty bad form to bring that up, splashymcsplash

YABU to ignore them OP if they're irritating you - I'd give them a shout. Or stop by the GP's surgery if I was passing and ask them to check my records. Or email the GPs surgery - that's free, surely?

Jenai I wasn't mocking. I just hope it was resolved if it was true as op never replied when people expressed concern.

Fair enough, splashy. There's been so much nastiness on AIBU of late, with people piling in for the sake of it and getting personal, that I'm afraid my horridness detector is a little oversensitive