New Concussion report

[Danno]

I did the barest bit of digging on the firm and I'd be surprised if there's more than 3 people working on these cases

[Oakboy]

I will note that, as someone who does have to deal with getting medical records from GP surgeries in my job, it is a phenomenal ballache. GDPR means that you can't ask for everything, but only the information that is pertinent to your need (which is as it should be, GDPR is generally a very positive thing in my book), which means that someone medically trained needs to go through the records, find what is relevant to the request being made, and then put that into a form. GPs are well noted for having bags of free time and also being really happy to do paperwork, so it takes time and a lot of ringing of receptions (who are also never busy) and chasing to get medical records on a person. Add to that the fact that no-one uses the same system, nothing is in the same format, and you'll be getting a bunch of data that then needs a human being at the other end to file and categorise into something usable.

Multiply that by the number of people they're representing and I can well believe they've had problems. That being said though, it would appear to be part of the minimum basic requirements for their case, so if they don't have the resources to do it, then they shouldn't be the lawyers.

Puja

Puja, can't the patient get the info by logging in etc.?

I certainly can't and would probably have to jump through the same hoops Puja describes. I imagine it varies from trust to trust, but I've been under three different NHS trusts in the last three years and have never had easy access to my medical records under any of them

It's hardly a rugby subject, but one more comment. I can get on-line access to everything and had occasion to download/print a consultant's letter very recently (an attachment on the GP notes). It's all NHS software etc. It's strange if dear old Dorset is ahead of the game but maybe it is down to individual surgeries??

[Danno]

Puja, can't the patient get the info by logging in etc.?

I certainly can't and would probably have to jump through the same hoops Puja describes. I imagine it varies from trust to trust, but I've been under three different NHS trusts in the last three years and have never had easy access to my medical records under any of them

It's hardly a rugby subject, but one more comment. I can get on-line access to everything and had occasion to download/print a consultant's letter very recently (an attachment on the GP notes). It's all NHS software etc. It's strange if dear old Dorset is ahead of the game but maybe it is down to individual surgeries??

I'd imagine so. I've had three different portals/apps provided by different surgeries to use in recent years as I've moved about a bit, and none have been able to let me access my records personally.

[Puja]

Puja, can't the patient get the info by logging in etc.?

I certainly can't and would probably have to jump through the same hoops Puja describes. I imagine it varies from trust to trust, but I've been under three different NHS trusts in the last three years and have never had easy access to my medical records under any of them

It's hardly a rugby subject, but one more comment. I can get on-line access to everything and had occasion to download/print a consultant's letter very recently (an attachment on the GP notes). It's all NHS software etc. It's strange if dear old Dorset is ahead of the game but maybe it is down to individual surgeries??

The problem is there's no centralised NHS system or software. They tried building one many years ago and it was a nightmare failure of an IT project because everyone's got their own system that won't talk to anything else and the issues involved in migrating all the data across were insurmountable, especially for the money the government wanted to spend. I can do what you can do on mine, but there's loads of NHS trusts where it's full-on impossible.

Puja

[Banquo]

I certainly can't and would probably have to jump through the same hoops Puja describes. I imagine it varies from trust to trust, but I've been under three different NHS trusts in the last three years and have never had easy access to my medical records under any of them

It's hardly a rugby subject, but one more comment. I can get on-line access to everything and had occasion to download/print a consultant's letter very recently (an attachment on the GP notes). It's all NHS software etc. It's strange if dear old Dorset is ahead of the game but maybe it is down to individual surgeries??

The problem is there's no centralised NHS system or software. They tried building one many years ago and it was a nightmare failure of an IT project because everyone's got their own system that won't talk to anything else and the issues involved in migrating all the data across were insurmountable, especially for the money the government wanted to spend. I can do what you can do on mine, but there's loads of NHS trusts where it's full-on impossible.

Puja

EPIC failure, at Addenbrookes I believe. £200m waste.