Kidney function test

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Tallboy said:
Hi Christy, did exactly what you advised - GP surgery had no knowledge of outsourcing... The worrying thing is this company knew my name address and the name of my GP's surgery. My advise to others, double check with your surgery before you sign up. This company Healthy.io Ltd is very evasive and shifty when confronted.
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'evasive and shifty' - exactly how I found them, and very persistent.
 
Word of warning to ANYONE thinking about complying with Healthy.io Ltd. It IMO is a aggressive internet parasite, looking to exploit the vulnerable... You're annual HBa1c NHS test inxludes kidney function. Healthy.ltd IMO are sinister to say the least!
 
To follow up on this topic - I've spoken to my surgery and they claim they are not involved with sharing my information with Healthy.io Ltd. Healthy.io Ltd know my name, address, telephone number and Health Center. The only others that IMO could have shared this information is Asda or Boots the Chemists. It would be interesting to hear from others who have been targeted by Healthy.io Ltd who and where they get there prescriptions dispensed?
I have now booked a HbA1c test through my surgery and it includes a kidney function. My advise is to give Healthy,io Ltd the heave ho!!
 
Tallboy said:
To follow up on this topic - I've spoken to my surgery and they claim they are not involved with sharing my information with Healthy.io Ltd. Healthy.io Ltd know my name, address, telephone number and Health Center.
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And presumably that you have diabetes (and so would be having regular kidney function tests of the kind that they're offering).

If you want to pursue it further, you could ask (under the Data Protection Act) what information they hold about you. (Which might conceivably give clues about how they got it.)
 
Bruce Stephens said:
If you want to pursue it further, you could ask (under the Data Protection Act) what information they hold about you. (Which might conceivably give clues about how they got it.)
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Having said that, you also have the right to ask them to get lost if they ask again and try and forget about the whole thing. (Which is likely what I'd do.)
 
I was a member on here in 2017, but i reversed my D2 in roughly 4 months and since then it's been a battle but I'm maintaining my healthier lifestyle.

I got contacted by healthy.io over xmas via a text. I did some research but I couldn't find anything on twitter apart from the official line. I then read the comments on here and found that no comments on twitter to be a bit suspicious. I got a kit and then returned the kit immediately.

Today I got a call from them and told them to not contact me again and that i've returned the kit to them recorded.

I then called my practice to tell them that I hadn't given them permission to give my details to private operators. They told me that they hadn't and that it had come from the NHS. I then informed them that the text that I got sent told me that the practice had given them my details.

They read out the text that was on the NHS records, which stated that the details came from the NHS. I checked my text and that clearly referenced that the details came from my practice.

It looks like to me that healthy.io are telling the NHS one thing but doing something totally different. Using my practise details on the text validates slightly what they're trying to do.

I have no intention of using them because I don't trust their methods of business.
 
Just experienced the same issue as all the others here. I had a very interesting conversation with our practice mgr who was surprised that Healthy.io had txt me directly She was adamant that it would have come from the practice. When I pointed out that sms messages from the practice all come from a recognisable batch of numbers and that the two I received were not she "blamed" it on their online service. I also pointed out that unsolicited numbers from known "suspicious" number batches are often flagged as spam, as is the case with the two I received. Suspicions we also raised by the addition of a dodgy download in the txt for a non NHS approved app that was supposedly needed to upload test data.

Fortunately my daughters fella has just left the group in our local CCG that was working on this project and he told me today that the team working on this are slippery as hissing sid and were advised not to go ahead with the Healthy.io partnership until letters had gone out to patients and a robust testing service from an NHS provider was put in place. Of course it seems they just carried on anyway. I'll be expecting a call from the practice tomorrow with hopefully more info as to what is going on. In the meantime, if you get one of these messages, flag it as spam and complain to your practice.
 
Type 1: Just had the same - in my case doing the minuteful "abnormal" test, as well as an unrelated medical emergency causing kidney pains, both happening in one evening - all contributed to a weird night, believing there was some possibility that my kidneys might be permanently damaged, and I'd be on dialysis or something. I was also 100% convinced that the texts I'd received were definitely related to my GP.
A doctor on the phone today informed me that it was some government related screening program (so that's who paid for it, you did). Leads to some questions 1. if public money was indeed spent on these test kits and the very impressive app they had built — why is this all so secretive? 2. And diabetics not informed or pre-warned? 3 Some private company been given your phone numbers? There's an interesting story in here somewhere …
 
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I'm glad to have found this thread, because I too have just received a test kit in the post from healthy.io.

I don't use phones, and R got a text a while ago from our surgery number saying I'd receive a urine test kit through the post as part of my annual diabetes review, which we assumed was an NHS test kit and a good idea because I'm not going into surgery at the moment.

Then he got a text from a different number asking him to download the app for the test results and we were both a bit dubious about this not coming from the surgery so thought we should do more research, which led me to this thread.

We will be having words with our surgery about giving out our personal details to private companies without our knowledge or consent 😡 - especially as we have specifically opted out from allowing NHS to share our details with private companies.

What do you think I should do with the test kit? I'm not paying to return it! Should I bin it, write "Unsolicited, return to sender" on it and stick it in a post box, or get R to text healthy.io to say that if they want it back they can pay a courier to collect it?
 
TheClockworkDodo said:
I'm glad to have found this thread, because I too have just received a test kit in the post from healthy.io.

I don't use phones, and R got a text a while ago from our surgery number saying I'd receive a urine test kit through the post as part of my annual diabetes review, which we assumed was an NHS test kit and a good idea because I'm not going into surgery at the moment.

Then he got a text from a different number asking him to download the app for the test results and we were both a bit dubious about this not coming from the surgery so thought we should do more research, which led me to this thread.

We will be having words with our surgery about giving out our personal details to private companies without our knowledge or consent 😡 - especially as we have specifically opted out from allowing NHS to share our details with private companies.

What do you think I should do with the test kit? I'm not paying to return it! Should I bin it, write "Unsolicited, return to sender" on it and stick it in a post box, or get R to text healthy.io to say that if they want it back they can pay a courier to collect it?
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I would suspect the components of the kit cost pennies and it would not be reissued anyway so I would just bin it. Seems a waste but insignificant compared to the level of waste generally which I have observed in the last few days in the NHS.
 
R says he'd bin it, too. I'm inclined to return to sender because then I can also write "Sender, you were given my details without my knowledge or consent - please delete them from your records and do not contact me again".

Doubt it will achieve anything other than relieve my feelings, but still!
 
I agree there’s something extremely ill-advised about GPS giving private addresses, to companies like this. BUT…

The test is extremely well-designed and user-friendly. (Unlike most NHS sponsored stuff, the company that designed this did a weirdly good job of the app. And the design of the test itself which takes less than maybe 10 minutes. Indeed It’s so exceptionally well done, and unusual in this regard, it makes you question the resources and necessity for doing these tests, for which must’ve cost the taxpayer, ie you and me, quite a fair fortune.

For everyone’s info: I did two of these tests. (Might as well I thought … someone’s paying for it) First one was “abnormal”, the second one, six months later, was “normal”. After the first result I was very worried indeed. Obviously, the words that Io use -“KIDNEY FUNCTION TEST: ABNORMAL”, I think would be. My GP, whom I’ve never met, told me after I eventually managed to get a phone-call- “don’t worry about that.” Without taking the time, to indicate why I shouldnt worry.

So the results seem to be fairly meaningless. ..And don’t worry.
 
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Hi , my trouble is that I remove unwarranted messages from my mobile and landline phone.

I am very wary about all messages received.
 
TheClockworkDodo said:
R says he'd bin it, too. I'm inclined to return to sender because then I can also write "Sender, you were given my details without my knowledge or consent - please delete them from your records and do not contact me again".

Doubt it will achieve anything other than relieve my feelings, but still!
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We all signed the t&c's when we signed up for whatever surgery we are at.
Then we signed up to even more when we asked for online access to test results.
Then we went for hospital tests, and signed up to even more.
 
I've never been asked to sign t&cs for surgery or hospital, only medical place I've been asked to do that is at private dentist for an extraction (and that was basically to say I consented to extraction, nothing complicated).

I always read t&cs and have never signed anything without reading them. I even plough through all of them when I shop online.

I did have a letter from NHS saying that unless I opted out of their passing on my details for research purposes they would be allowed to do so. I opted out and received an acknowledgement of the fact that I had done so.

I think someone incompetent at surgery has just not noticed that I have opted out.
 
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