consultants to gps to letters

[sidheandlight]

Tried posting this on a country specific forum, not to waste anyone's time. But couldn't. Are you entitled to see the letter passed between a consultant to a GP in general?I'd love if someone with knowledge could tell me yes or not. The health system is irish.

Very much depends

Some GPs may read out or give you a copy
Some you will have to make a specific request
(This may just be to the GP practice or some places you will have to request centrally from the health board)
You can always ask your consultant to copy you into letters too and they may do this.

The consultants at my hospital copy in the patient as standard.
You could ask your GP if you could see the letter, but they don’t have to show you it.

Not necessarily in the UK (NHS England anyway).

Depending on what it’s for, you probably wouldn’t understand it anyway.

To my knowledge I get sent a copy.

In England and Wales you are copied in. I would say it's about you and you have a right to see it.

They're always fun
'I had the pleasure of seeing this delightful, 41 year old lawyer in my clinic today....'
Delightful <preens>

When you say Irish, which part of the island of Ireland do you mean?

Health is a devolved responsibility if NI, and so practices in other parts of UK may not apply (in my English health trust area, all letters are copied to the patient automatically, unless you opt out)

But AFAIK the principle that you can see the information that public organisations hold about you applies everywhere, so there will be a mechanism somewhere

I get sent copies by the hospital, then the GP calls to discuss it where needed. Have you asked for a copy? Try the consultant's admin team first, I find ours respond really quickly to emails.

you probably wouldn’t understand it anyway.
Bit patronising?

I seem to remember a thread on here a while ago decoding the "delighful" etc which was quite entertatining 😀

I’m in the UK and have seen various consultants and they always cc me into any letters to my GP. As far as I’m aware - maybe they send letters that they don’t cc me in as well!

Just ask them to cc you in when you see the consultant.

Presumably you can request it under data protection rules?

In the UK you are almost always copied in.

Doesn't mean the letter is understandable though! Not meant to be patronizing, I'm a doctor and even with the aid of google, we don't understand half of DH's letters from Ophthalmology, they are all in a secret code.

You also have the right to ask for a copy of your notes which would include any letters.

This is actually I guess what I am asking?

In NI you don't generally get them. I was really surprised when DH got one from an appointment he had to go to in London (second opinion for a rare condition).

Why do you want it? Do you not understand something or is it for more information?

I know you don't mean it and am irked by a previous posters response, which was entirely patronising. But I appreciate your response, I am a scientist in cancer research, so bar some medical shorthand, there is not much I would not understand. Could you expand on 'You also have the right to ask for a copy of your notes which would include any letters' but from my own experience the letter sent to the GP and the copy to the patient are markedly different? Would you consider this true?

from my own experience the letter sent to the GP and the copy to the patient are markedly different? Would you consider this true?

Part of my job involves reviewing medical records. I've reviewed thousands of sets of records and, in England and Wales at least, the patient just gets a copy of the same letter that is sent to the GP. It's not a separate letter to the patient.

Having been with my husband having treatment in RoI (we are from NI) I'm not sure any of these suggestions are helpful as they relate to the NHS. You're comparing apples and oranges.

This.

You might be better off posting on Craicnet.

The HSE is way behind the NHS on this.

In the UK, a single letter is sent to the patient and the GP, as frankly no-one has time to be typing/dictating 2 letters.

It does cause issues when what you want to communicate is something deeply upsetting to the patient, or they fundamentally disagree with but generally doctors have got used to the system.

You can ask your GP, or hospital via PALS for your notes - although things may be dedacted, for example if they relate to another person.

However no idea what the system is in Ireland.

But data protection rules are Europe-wide and GDPR applies in ROI. I have no idea of the process but there should be a way to request all the information your primary care doctor holds about you, including letters. The process under GDPR won't be markedly different between the UK and ROI.

NI falls under GDPR and you have the right to access data specific to you. There are some exemptions when it comes to health data but I don't believe any should be relevant to your situation.

Here's up the ICO guidance related to Health Data

ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/right-of-access/health-data/