in not seeing the reason for needing Doctors name and phone number on children's trip forms

[seventyfive]

Its just a little thing, but why do schools/children's clubs ask for the name of a child's doctor on medical forms for (day) trips?
I seem to fill this info out all the time but wonder what circumstance would lead them to use that info?

Gosh no, it won't be for the teachers to ring the GP. It's so A&E can get a basic history is needed and somewhere to send the discharge summary to. Often A&E or the hospital will want the GP to follow certain things up after discharge as well and if you don't supply the GP's details, they won't know who to send it to or even if they have a previous GP address recorded it may be out-of-date.

I'm pretty sure nothing's done with the information at the time, but A&E write to the dr after.

And virgo - no GP would release info to a person on the phone saying they were a child's teacher, there'd been an accident and could the GP tell them what to do / tell them about any allergies etc.

I really think MNers let their imaginations roam off-piste sometimes! What on earth makes you think this would happen?

You can ring my GP surgery up at any time to get that information, so it's not deluded if your particular surgery does this. However I know a lot wouldn't.

^^ what buga said!

driven

I wasn't talking about releasing information, I thought the OP meant ringing the doctors because the child was ill and needed to see a doctor, emergency callout.

However my GP surgery does give info out over the phone if you answer security questions.

I know how it works, I worked in a GP surgery :)

In that case, I can see the reason for asking the surgery name, but think the phone number is not needed… There - I compromised!

I don't understand why you wouldn't want to supply the surgery number. Do you really think hospital staff would ring them for the fun of it? All that happens now if your DC gets admitted somewhere and they need to ring the GP is that someone has to look it up on google and hope they get the right practice.

BugaAB00
No! I don't think they would call for the fun of it, I just think people ask for info on forms, not really thinking about why they are asking or just because they always have.

How about, child goes to a and e, with teacher.
Staff say 'when was the last time he had a tetanus jab?'
Teacher says 'I don't know, I'm just the teacher!'
So A and E staff contact the doctors' surgery, pass security questions, and get the information they need.
Is that plausible?

Ah I see, I get what you mean since this is a school form. But personally I can see the rationale for having a phone number.

CrohnicallyExhausted Totally implausible! I can't even phone the Drs to get that info! For one they are shut a lot, or are too busy to answer the phone, and also they don't have Drs waiting to look things up on the patient record. The receptionist would have to request the info and the Dr might call back at the end of surgery.

seventyfive But just because yours doesn't doesn't mean they're all the same!

Mine does. The receptionists have access to the information, in fact I had to check myself a couple of weeks ago

I had to get a list of my jabs for Occupational Health, I walked in and the receptionist printed them off there and then.

When I had my meeting with Occy Health, the nurse wasn't sure if I'd had one of the jabs so rang my GP surgery and asked the receptionist to check - lo and behold I hadn't.

It works for some, obviously not for others like yours

I've never had to speak to a doctor to confirm last tetanus etc, once I've passed a few security-type checks admin staff can tell me exactly what DD's last appt was concerning etc. I've had to do that a couple of times for various organisations including school.

OP, maybe you've just got a few extra jobsworths on reception there?

Yousound annoyed by it , it is really so they have genral information to make sure the child is registered with a gp etc

Because in case of a problem a&e will need to phone gp surgery. There is often a separate line fir that not the one the public has.

I'm a teacher. We ask for it so we can give it to A&E or paramedics should the need arise.

Then they can contact the GP for any information and send a letter afterwards.

A&E will need that info for their discharge letter so it is useful in that regard. However when I take Brownies away, if they are fine enough for me to have time or the desire to phone the GP, they are fine enough for the parents to come and get them to do that. If they are sick enough for A&E, I'll get them there and give them the GP contact details for the posted discharge letter/follow up plans/results etc.

The reason we ask for information like this on the trip form, even though we already have it in school, is that then there is a reasonable chance that we will be given up to date information, rather than, for example printing off the info from the school management system and discovering that the child changed doctors three years ago, or that the mobile we have been trying to contact the parent on is their old one they gave to Grandma, who never actually turns it on....

the trip forms also go off on the trip with the party - no wasting time getting in touch with school to look up contact and ring parents about an incident!

I have recently had to phone my GP for dates of DCs last tetanus jabs, for a form for a summer camp - no problem at all getting this from the receptionist, all I had to do was give their name and date of birth, I could have been their teacher, brown owl, school secretary or any other adult who just knew their name and d of b. I don't see what "data" there is to protect in that, or what "malicious" activity would prompt someone to lie to get such info?

what I mean is, what can a random person making such an enquiry do with that information, about a DCs jabs, if in fact they were not the parent genuinely needing to know? who would do this and why? which is why my surgery at least appear happy to give out such info without me passing a dozen security Qs!

We needed it when we took the child to A&E. They asked for the GP address and surgery name.

Good point about the information being up to date. How many times have I tried to contact a parent only to hear 'beep beep beep, the number you have dialled has not been recognised'? And while we (usually) have information about chronic health conditions in school, so know that x hasn't been diagnosed with asthma and take them to a and e when they start being unable to breathe properly, we probably don't have the information that x has been to the doctors' 3 times over the winter with a severe cough, and there is a pattern of coughing/breathlessness that might lead a and e doctors to think that this instance might be asthma (for example).

seventyfive I would hope that if a and e doctors phoned with a request, the receptionists would interrupt the surgery if need be to get that information. The clue is in the e of a and e- 'emergency'. A parent phoning with that request is just routine.

If you have so many kids and so many forms to fill out that it's this tiresome why not get some little stickers printed out with your GP details on?

I have 4 DCs and can honestly say that writing:

X medical center, X village, 01234 567 8910

a few ties a year was never too much of a bind, for the sake of the DCs health and safety.