freedomdwarf1
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quote:
ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri
quote:
ORIGINAL: freedomdwarf1
Yes... that directive is to make professional notes on the patients records by the doctor.
The whole idea of that is for the locum or any other doctor to be aware that the patient has been advised about their weight gain and that they have been advised to do something about it and also whatever follow-up actions have been taken thus far.
It is also of great benefit when a patient is seeing another doctor, either temporarily (whilst away from home) or are in the process of relocating.The government have nothing to do with the info being recorded, nor do the NHS in general.
In the US, that info would be abused by private insurance companies to wriggle out of payments by adding to the exclusions in the policy.
Because we don't have that problem, the info is just for doctors and other medical staff to be aware of.
It is basically allowing for continuity of patient information regardless of where that patient is or which medical professional they are seeing at the time.
Many doctors are diligent and record it all anyway, others are not so diligent in what they record.
A good example would be if you were referred to a dietician and/or occupational therapist for treatment.
Each element would provide reports to the patient's doctor and their findings/progress can be recorded in the confidential records.
That way, if a certain type of procedure or diet or whatever didn't work for that particular patient, the next dietician/therapist knows what has been tried and what the results were.
WTF have physicians been doing up to now?!? Haven't they been taking notes and updating patient records?!? FFS, the last time I had an appointment with the same Doctor (my GP has recently left the practice and I have only had one appt. since, so there has only been one with this last person), he referred to my records to follow up on something we'd talked about the last time, and he even knew if my weight, BP, and HR had changed since then. Interestingly enough, when my first GP in this area retired, the guy that took over had my records.
Wanna know something else crazy? I was able to get my dental records from when I was a kid sent up to my current dentist (same State, but different cities). This was way back in the late 1990's, too. Fucking insane how this shit's been going on, yet government thinks they need to force the issue...
The doctors have been making notes, yes.
But most of those notes are "clinical" notes.
That would be your weight, BP, ailments, medications etc.
What they haven't done in the past (until recently) is making notes on things that might help with preventative medicine.
So, while most have been recording your weight, cholesterol etc, and probably made verbal comments on losing that weight or cutting out fats, they have not included those comments on the official notes and certainly not noted what other health clinics and plans were available for the patient to follow up on and whether they did so or not.
And as I also said in my earlier comment, part of the exercise was to update the computer systems so that the new info was interchangeable between them.
By making the systems more compatible, it saved a lot of time by not having to print-off and send this info by post because it can now (in most circumstances) be sent electronically.
Many of the older systems did not have the necessary capacity to store such extraneous and wordy info. Only in recent years has the hardware (hard drives/offline backups etc) offered the capacity and affordability to expand the software to include lots of extra info.
quote:
ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri
quote:
Do I have to keep stressing that patient confidentiality is not compromised??
Nobody is reporting anything to anyone except personal records being recorded by the patient's doctor.
The government and the NHS are not involved in keeping or maintaining these records.
And the word "ensured" that people are picking on, was a bit of a misnomer and a bad choice.
Nothing is ever "ensured" at all, by anyone, in any sense of the word.
Monitored (if they participate) and recorded, yes.
Are you sure the NHS isn't being informed? To whom are GP's identifying the patients who have gained weight?
Do you understand who or what the NHS actually is??
It is a general umbrella named government department run and overseen by an MP who's job it is to allocate funding and ensure that things are coordinated across the country when it comes to supplies etc.
Beyond that, each and every doctor, hospital, clinic etc is a separate entity with their own accounts, managers, staff and budgets just like any other commercial enterprise.
The only difference is that these institutions are funded by the NHS, do not have to make a profit (and most don't), and their supplies are funded and organized/delivered from one central point - the NHS system.
That means that all the staff wages, facilities etc are paid for by the NHS within strict budgetary limits/allocations. Unlike the US "government funded" system where it's all private (including the grossly obscene salaries and profits) and the government just pay what they are invoiced.
And as I said earlier - the patients and their (new) extended notes are reported on the individual patient records; they are not reported or recorded outside of that environment.
As Maria commented, it is for the presentation of preventative medicine and procedures in a pro-active health plan.
This is something the Europeans have been doing for some time and we are catching up.
This sort of thing doesn't happen much in the US because it relies on:
1) the patient participating (and if they don't, they risk an additional exclusion);
2) the patient being able to afford the extra clinic/doctor visits and meds;
3) the insurance policy covering such preventative measures rather than just clinical treatments.
And from what I understand from my Americans friends I speak to, #3 isn't in most of their policies so it would cost them thousands of $'s to participate.
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“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” George Orwell, 1903-1950
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RE: Doctors told to report patients who put on weight - 
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