I’m still waiting to hear from the surgery. No information on whether or not I am now registered there and no update on the location of my records.

Judging from the public and private comments I’ve had from people on this. Shutting down GP surgeries for poor records management would result in there being hardly any surgeries left! But the threat would concentrate their minds wonderfully.

I work in the healthcare sector – not the NHS, but in the private sector. Records Management practices are generally a key component of some of our regulatory inspections. We can be shut down and/or fined for not getting it right. I’ll probably open up a huge argument here, but I suppose you can’t shut down a GP surgery for poor records management – if you could, it might be a different story.

I am still waiting to hear if they have found my records and re-registered me at the practice. So while I wait I asked my husband, who went to the surgery about two months ago to get a general check up that was needed for a possible trip to Antarctica, about his status at the surgery. He is on the computer – just. Only name and address, a totally new NHS number, and the doctor commented that he obviously had not visited them before because there were no notes on the system (computer says no!). His previous visit had been in 1989 and mine was about 1995 so why was there a record for him, even if it was only contact details, but not me:-( Human error is the obvious conclusion. But we are now thinking why wasn’t any previous medical history available to the doctor either on the computer or on the old buff coloured cards? My husband or myself could be given a treatment or a vaccination to which, in the past, we have suffered an adverse reaction and there would no record of it available to the doctor. The consequences for them would be fire-fighting on a serious scale i.e. major legal proceedings – if we had survived of course!

In reality, both of us are well aware of past allergic and adverse reactions and would make them known very vociferously to the doctor. But the fact remains that in transferring records to the computer system it seems that they are not including vital information that could mean life or death to the patient.

I originally found the incident highly amusing. After receiving so many comments and horror stories from others, and thinking through the potential harm that could befall my loved ones and myself I am now angry at the total shambles of the system and incompetence of those who have devised and implemented this system.

“So Mrs Norman the operation was obviously a success”

or perhaps that should be “So Mr Norman, the operation was a failure”

It really does not inspire confidence.

Karen

I read your blog posting and must confess that I have never thought about dental records, but there could be serious reactions to anaesthetics for example that out to be transferred from one practice to another.

You are right about the poor records management history of the NHS being a factor in my wanting to opt out. But I also sometimes work with programmers who have experience of trying to sort out various messes on NHS systems. They say it is a complete shambles and security so pathetic they might just as well put it all on an open web site.

Lots of other horror stories out there judging by Twitter and Facebook responses to my posting, as well as the three comments so far in here. What really got to me was that they kept repeating the same questions over and over again and the manner in which they asked them – a bit like your “How do you know that’s your birthday”. I kept getting “But are you sure you really did register here?”. “Yes – the name of your surgery and the doctor are on this card!”.

What really concerns me is that there may no longer be any record of the severe allergic reactions I have to some vaccines. When I raised this with the staff on the desk they told me not to worry – it will all be in my notes, which they don’t have and don’t know for certain if they still exist!

So if we both have data horror stories about the NHS, how many other people do?