How to prepare your records for a private appointment

Why your records matter

Good records let the doctor spend the appointment on you instead of on reconstructing your history. A doctor who can read your past letters, results and medicines before you meet can compare, notice a trend and avoid repeating tests you have already had.

The most useful records are the ones written for you as well as about you. Guidance from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges says a clinic letter should include the reason for the visit, a summary of the history and findings, the questions asked with their answers, the agreed plan, and a list of medicines with explanations of anything new or changed [1]. Letters like these are the first thing to bring.

A checklist of what to bring

Gather these into one folder, on paper or on your phone, and keep your own copy of everything you hand over.

• A one page summary of your diagnoses, operations and allergies
• A list of every medicine and supplement, with strength and dose
• Clinic letters and discharge summaries from the last few years
• Blood results with their dates, units and reference ranges
• Scan images on a disc or a secure link, with the written reports
• Your vaccination record, especially if you have lived abroad
• Your family history of heart disease, diabetes and cancer
• The questions you want answered, written down in order of importance

How to get copies of your records

You have a legal right to a copy of the personal information an organisation holds about you, including your health records [2]. Asking for it is called a subject access request, anyone can make one without a solicitor, and organisations usually have one month to respond [3].

Make the request in writing, with a subject line that says subject access request, the date, your name and contact details, and the information and dates you want [3]. Because health information is sensitive, the clinic may ask for proof of identity, and the month starts once it has what it needs from you [4]. A complex request can take up to two months longer, and organisations normally cannot charge for it [4].

You can ask for someone else’s records only with their written permission or a power of attorney [3]. Start early, because scan images and older letters are often the slowest part to arrive.

What your medicines list should hold

A complete medicines list is one of the most useful documents you can bring. NICE guidance on moving between care settings says the information shared should include the name, strength, form, dose, timing and frequency of each medicine, what it is taken for, any recent changes with the reason, and the date of the last dose for weekly or monthly medicines such as injections [5].

Include medicines bought without a prescription and complementary remedies, which NICE counts as part of the list [5]. Add any known drug allergies and the reaction you had, as the same guidance asks [5].

Scans and results

For a scan, bring the images as well as the report. A doctor or radiologist can look at the pictures afresh, and the images can be compared with any later scan. Ask the imaging centre for the images in DICOM format, on a disc or through a secure download link.

For blood tests, bring the full printout instead of a summary. The units and reference ranges differ between laboratories, so a number means little without the range printed beside it, and earlier results show whether something is changing.

Sharing your records safely

Information about your health is special category data under UK data protection law, and it may be used only when extra conditions are met [6]. Send records through a secure link or the clinic’s own channel in preference to ordinary email, and tell the clinic who else, such as your own GP, may receive them.

Ask how the clinic will keep your records and whether you can read them yourself. At The Wellness your records stay yours, you can read and download them, and with your permission we send results and letters to your own GP so your record stays in one place [7].

How The Wellness can help

A standard GP appointment is 30 minutes, at £150, and your records and results are kept together on your profile, where you can see how they change over time [8]. If you need a specialist, you can send a referral letter you already have, or one of our GPs will see you first and write the referral the specialist needs [9]. Every letter and result then comes back into one record your doctor reads with you [9].

Our clinics are on Baker Street in Marylebone and Eccleston Street in Belgravia, open from seven in the morning to nine at night every day. Every doctor is GMC registered, and regulated services are delivered through registered partner clinics and accredited laboratories.