Steve Walker wrote:

On 31/01/2018 22:24, Huge wrote:
On 2018-01-31, Adam Funk wrote:
On 2018-01-30, Graham wrote:

looking for something else last week, I came across an installation
manual with large letters on the front "DO NOT LEAVE WITH CUSTOMER"

That was printed on the installation instructions for my Gloworm
boiler.

Something like "Not to be read by the patient" used to adorn medical
notes hanging from the foot of hospital beds.

Did they leave that there if the patient was sufficiently able-bodied
to reach it? Something like that would certainly get my attention &
I'd try to get a look at it.

I *always* read my notes. And then ask for explanations of what things
mean. I was given my notes at one clinic in a sealed envelope to give
to the doctor. I opened and read them. No-one's ever complained about
this behaviour.

My opinion - since we were repeatedly handed sealed envelopes of scans
when my wife was pregnant - has been that "they are our notes, we'll let
the doctor read them if we feel like it!" Why the health service thinks
that notes, scans, etc. are theirs and not the patient's I don't know.

SteveW

Iniquitously enough, because they *do* legally belong to the health
service and not to you. And it is illegal for a random junior staff
member of the health service to let you read them. If someone's got the
energy, this is worthy of a petition some time. The trouble is that you
will find that a lot of people believe that some people (not themselves,
you understand) need protecting from the contents of the notes. It is
not just (some) doctors who think like this. As I am sure you know, in
most countries the medical notes do belong to the patient, and are often
kept by the patient.


--

Roger Hayter