access to your personal health record

Apparently by 2015 we patients will be able to view our own health record online, the notes that the doctor writes etc. Is it a good thing?

I think it is. I would certainly make use of it.

 

No way Miraflores! I don't want someone hacking in to read my records, thank you!

 

In theory it is a good thing. In practice, I suspect not.

My logic is this. While all data has inherent value (that's why you're on so many databases), the medical records of everybody in the UK will be extremely valuable data.

When you put valuable data online, there will be no shortage of people trying to steal it. We all know this, its one of the reasons why email 'phishing' attacks are so common, and its the reason that we've seen in the media about various high profile websites having been hacked recently.

Ok, so all our banking data is available online. Naturally plenty of people are trying to steal that too, and fortunately with fairly limited success in general. The reason for that limited success is that the banks can afford to put the right people on the job of developing and securing the websites. While the government could afford that too, they will instead blow almost all of the budget on independent auditors to oversee the spending, rather than on professional IT services to get the job done. So what you will end up with is a weak site that runs over budget and over schedule, and will be in the news for all the wrong reasons before it even goes live. Then on the day it does go live, it will be in the news again, having crashed within an hour of its launch.

 

Well, in theory it's a great idea. Like many Mums-to-be, I carried my maternity notes around with me (even taking them on holiday), so not only were they instantly available but I could refer to them at any time especially during those 'what did he say?' moments.

I've always been of the opinion that since first and foremost my medical notes concern me (and only me) then I, and I alone, should decide who sees them - it's not for some doctor to decide whether I should 'be allowed' to have access to them.

That said, when/if they go online, no doubt you'll be told there's a 'waiting list' to view them, if you're lucky you'll get an allocated slot in about 3 months time, you'll log on only to find you have to sit in front of your computer for at least 3 hours because they're 'running late due to an emergency' and, when you ring the helpline, you'll get someone who barely speaks English and who will 'refer you' to someone else.

Of course, on the up-side, if you choose the 'subscription service', there'll be no waiting, you're record will appear instantly on-screen any time of the day or night and the helpline will ring you!

Cynical? Yep.

 

I thought this idea had been hit on the head.

 

I thought that it was already possible to view your notes, but not online, by prior arrangement with the surgery - presumably so they have time to "lose" anything very derogatory. Sometimes I've been handed them on arrival for an appointment.

I've seen bits of mine and they were mostly incomprehensible, anyway.

 

I think we can easily look at our medical notes simply by walking into any bookshop, and picking up something from the fiction section.

Let me explain from my experience.

Once, I had to go into hospital to let them have a look inside my gizzards. This involved putting me to sleep, then sending a camera thing down my throat. Afterwards, as I lay awake on the ward recovering from the anaesthetic, I could told I must not try to speak because according to my notes, I'd just had a lump of my voice box cut away. Naturally I was horrified at this news, and demanded to know what they were talking about. It was only when one of the nurses realised I was talking far too well for someone who'd just had major surgery on my voice box, and enquiries were made. Guess what had happened, my notes had been mixed up with someone else's, and in my medical record, it said I'd had this surgery, while someone else who sadly had a tumour that had to be removed, presumably had their ailment recorded as inflammation of the lower oesophagus.

Months later, while at the GP's about my recurring ailment that was improving following treatment, the GP asked how I was managing with my other debilitating illness (he mentioned the name of this disease, but I can't remember it). Realising that I had no idea what he was on about, he asked about some other medication I was on. Still no idea what he's on about, so he double checked my name and address, which he had right. Out of professional duty, he quickly dropped the subject of my other ailments (which I didn't have) and tried to let it lie. Naturally I was concerned, so I asked him how come my medical record gave him such incorrect information, which clearly related to somebody else. His reply? "Well it is the NHS you know".

 

I was actually mixed up with someone with cancer and sent their details.

Am I right in thinking the NHS seems to ID us by DOB.

As this persons DOB was only slightly different from mine, but had a similar problem to me, but with the cancer complication.

Certainly put the shits up me for a while until I realised it was actually someone else.

When I showed the hospital the letter I was sent they said this has never happened before, but the letter vanished very quickly.

 

Medical Records for Ziggy,

 

Nope
Your notes say
PROBABLY HIT ON THE HEAD AS A CHILD


Jack McH

 

My son and daughter before emigrating requested and got their full medical records printed out by our surgery to take with them. It cost them £10 each.

 

On reflection, I think it might after all, be a good idea to have these notes online and therefore available to 'hackers'.

It would be good for the world to see that my youngest daughter born just before the winter of 1986/87 (remember it? the one with all the snow?) was diagnosed with 'heat rash' when even I knew she'd got chickenpox, something she promptly gave the other two - unless heat rash is now contagious? I'd like them to see that when my Father was involved in a hit-and-run car accident, it was the break in his left leg that went undiagnosed for 4 months after they'd x-rayed his right leg and declared him free from injury, not to mention my husband's medication for a kidney complaint which resulted in his kidney function going from 70% to 30% until I told him to stop taking the medication, after which the kidney function promptly returned to it's previous level or indeed the medication he took for 8 months following the 'heart attack' they subsequently declared he hadn't had.

 

I did not read everyone's opinion, but here are my thoughts.

1. No, do not think this is a good idea.
2. Big Brother can get access to this, and you may not have a say in it.
3. Right now, most employers frown on hiring people who smoke, they can't ask you, they can't say it, but it's being done. They also frown on over weight folks.
4. Most employers don't like hiring sickly folks, it will raise their health insurance as a group coverage. Also you will call off sick more often than a healthy person, leaving the employer to pay your sick time and then pay the person to cover your work. But again they can't say that, nor presently ask any questions pertaining to that.
5. Employers now have access to your driving records, and criminal checks. One day they will have access to your health records. At this point most employers want a physical done during hiring by their chosen physician. The chosen physician will only have the information you tell him then and any he can gleam from his exam, such as you blood pressure. Having your entire records open, will expose your true ills from any "real" tests you have had under other physicians.
6. Then there is Consumer Marketing, bet they will have certain access, and you will wonder why your getting coupons for "fix your hair loss", when you put in your medical records alopecia. (example). Or if a women is going through menopause, suddenly information comes to you about estrogen.

What I am thinking is, not the entire medical recored will be accessed by all the above type, but certain information will be catorgorized . So that only certain catorgorizies can be "sold" to a enity needing a certain "type" of information. Lets face it, follow the money trail. Nothing is free, there are consequences for everything, good and bad.

 

Great. Soon to be followed by a "self diagnose" tab and "self prescribe" tab I would expect :D