I can’t sort this out can I?

[MustBeInthewater]

Many many years ago I lived with someone (friend) We were the same age and they had a lot of MH issues. Some very specific things and there were some incidents that happened relating to MH.

I recently decided to get life insurance - pretty straightforward claim (I thought) until they requested a gp report. Documented in MY medical notes are presentations at a+e for things that never happened but the times dates and details are the exact medical history of my friend. I can only assume that my name and dob were given on arrival. This was such a long time ago and I’ve had no idea at all. It’s never been mentioned and seemingly was buried in my notes but the gp doing the form had gone through everything with a fine tooth comb and uncovered this .

my GP will not entertain the idea at all that this is not my history. Short of getting a confession from the person involved (which won’t happen) I’m now stuck with serious inaccuracies on my record.

I don’t know what to do. Repeatedly telling my gp has now resulted in a situation where they are saying that I’m in denial and that this is a potential issue as I am not dealing with things and they would have hoped I would say ‘yes this happened but I’ve worked through things and it was a long time ago and I’m in a better place now’ but WHY would anyone admit to something they didn’t do . For one element of it I said I could go in and show that I don’t have something that was in my notes as proof but they said no.

i don’t really know what the point of me posting this is but I feel so frustrated. It also made me think how on presentation at a and e obviously ID isn’t checked and this had gone unnoticed for so many years that it’s too late for me to rectify it. I’m feeling very angry and let down

I disagree. These aren't her medical records, and as they're MH records, they're very difficult to prove without looking like you're having 'another' MH crisis, suffering paranoid delusions that the records aren't hers but an old friends. It's like something out of a Netflix drama.

If she ever does seek treatment/medication/counselling for her MH, OP would now have a huge 'history' that will be read and have an effect on the treatment she's offered. She's already used the example that if she sought help for PND, because of her incorrect records the medical response would be far greater and more serious because they would think she had a history of self-harm and suicide attempts. Any resistance and denial simply compounds the belief by doctors further that she's unstable.

It's really not about stigma, it's about needing accurate medical records for any current or future treatment, life insurance, travel insurance... it's a given that your records should be yours.

FWIW OP I discovered I had someone else's notes mixed in with mine, when I went for a psychological assessment after a very bad car accident. The psychologist suddenly dropped on me, 'and tell me about this sexual assault that happened when you were 5'... I was like WTF? All sorts running through my head thinking I'd repressed some traumatic memory or something, until I asked her if I could have a look at the notes, and someone else's name was printed at the top - nothing like my name. The psychologist shrugged and said, 'well I can't be expected to check every detail like that', errrrm, that's exactly what I'm paying you to do actually! The practice manager was very dismissive as well, 'mistakes happen'. Well sorry, but now I know that someone called XYZ who lives in my village was sexually assaulted when she was 5. And I doubt she'd want a stranger to know because one of your staff didn't do their job properly.

Any progress, @MustBeInthewater ?

Do you have the same blood type? Would they have tested blood at any point?

@MustBeInthewater Did you ever get this resolved?