How can I get hold of DM's medical history and notes?

[UltimateFoole]

DM is in a nursing home recuperating and getting mobile after a recent hospital stay. She still has mental capacity but gets confused following a stroke, longstanding cognitive decline and most recently delirium after hospital and a UTI.

I'd like to see DM's medical records from her GP and from her most recent stay in hospital. How would I go about accessing these?

I have LPA for health and the old style EPA for finances which is not yet registered.

Our experience of the GP is that they are pretty disengaged and haven't taken action despite us repeatedly flagging concerns. Concerns which it now transpires were first raised to the GP by a hospital consultant more than 10 years ago.

I'd like to get to the bottom of what has / hasn't been done. And if people have dropped the ball then I think they should be told so they can do better.

DM wrote a letter to her GP ages ago saying they could discuss all and any medical matters with me. Is this enough to get copies of her medical history? Or what do I need to do instead?

Thank you!

You submit a dsar on her behalf, there may be a form on website and require id. Each provider will be separate although gp records should contain hospital discharge summaries, consultant letters , test results and referrals. Otherwise register for nhs app and some will be available there.

Does the LPA allow me to make a DSAR as an attorney even though DM still has capacity?

She can still broadly make decisions for herself about treatment etc. but doing any paperwork is beyond her with poor eyesight and cognitive issues.

She could submit it or you can on other's behalf with consent

Ah perfect. Thank you, that's really helpful.

The letter should be enough, but if she has capacity, write a new letter for her and ask her to sign it,

LPA Health can’t be used until she has lost capacity.

Practice secretary may be more helpful than GP

DSAR is ok for a one-off request, but I don’t think it’s a continuing thing. You’d need to repeat it every time you thought something may have changed.

A letter from my father gave me online access to his records so I could look avry couple of weeks and see what he was being prescribed.

This might help https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/getting-copies-of-your-information-subject-access-request/

What do you suspect they haven't done?

I look at medical records as part of my job and it's highly unlikely you will find a 'smoking gun' unless you were on the ward at the time and saw something not being done which the records falsely show was done.

Equally GP records don't record thought processes- it will show what was done but not really what wasn't and why, so unless you have a medical background yourself they might not tell you much.

People have the right to access information held about them - and for good reason.

I am approaching this with an open mind.

I am moved to seek out the information after a rather pointed comment from a hospital consultant to the GP that he highlighted a low sodium test result to them 10 years ago. It's this exact same deficiency that put DM in hospital a few weeks ago.

Actually, DM was referred to that hospital consultant the second time because somehow she and the GP forgot the diagnosis and treatment he prescribed first time around. This was unrelated to the low sodium issue.

It's fair that questions should be asked and answered.

It's unfortunate when professionals feel the need to be defensive, it can too easily lead to cover-ups. And that helps no one; killing trust, ruining careers and leaving families betrayed.

The NHS ombudsman has even spoken of a 'cover-up culture' and found evidence of documents going missing when there are complaints and patient care plans being altered after death.

Individuals mostly want to do their jobs well, but the NHS is a huge, complex system and mistakes are inevitable. Institutions can make it hard for individuals to speak up.

If improvements are possible then I am willing to put my time and energy and good sense and good will into helping make that happen.

**

And thank you @MereDintofPandiculation for the suggestion of accessing online records. I hadn't thought of it and it would be incredibly helpful in improving information flows.