Threatening letter from GP surgery

Sally71 said:
Hello All

So we’ve been to the practice, receptionist was very helpful. She said the letter came from a “recall team” which my daughter has presumably been added onto automatically when she reached 18. She understood exactly what the issue is and has sent an email to them asking for my daughter to be removed from the list and explaining that we have all the checks done at the hospital. I had a copy of the next appointment letter with all the details of which clinic she’s under and the lady took note of that too. No guarantee that it will work, but we’ve tried. She also gave me the email address for the practice manager to write to about the letter and agreed with what I said about it being too harsh. So now I’ve got to draft up the email, trying to get all my points in without waffling on too much! I shall do a first draft, see if daughter wants to add or change anything, and then send it when we’re both happy. Thanks for all the tips everyone 🙂
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Hopefully a good result then. I suspect we've all fallen victim to these auto-generated letters at some time.
 
helli said:
Thankfully, my blood test requests are now sent electronically so there is nothing to print and another tree is saved.
And, more importantly, no pieces of paper to forget/lose.
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Our Practice doesn't actually do the blood tests so you have to take the form to the Pharmacy who offer a phlebotomy bookable service or to the hospital or walkin centre where there is usually a mega queue
 
Don’t want to hijack this thread but I thought this might be an appropriate thread to post this.
I am undergoing private cataract surgery in December. One of the things I must do is provide a letter from my doctor, giving a current statement of my blood sugar level. I contacted the clinic dealing with my surgery to say that I would rather not go through the process of getting an appointment with and a letter from my doctor ( whom I haven’t seen for 8 years since I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes).
I asked the clinic if a hard copy of the results of my recent Diabetic review would suffice, which they consented to.
I have been twice to clearly and succinctly request a print out of my Diabetic review results but twice they have given me a copy of my medical records, which do not include the details I require. I know that the diabetic nurse who conducts my review has an on screen copy of my results, which is what I want but articulating that to the office admin team seems to be a problem.
 
Well email has been sent, we’ll see if anything happens! Did a combined effort with daughter, two main paragraphs pointing out that you can’t withhold life-sustaining medication and any such threats are a bit excessive and could do more harm than good, could you have markers in your system so that people on certain medications get a different letter that is less harsh, and then explaining why daughter doesn’t want to go to the appointment anyway, because she already has regular checks.

In the meantime though she has received a message from the diabetes nurse at the surgery, telling her that even though she’s under consultant care it’s still best practice to have an annual review with them once a year once she turns 18, and that her hospital team should be encouraging her to attend. They have a duty of care and will be recalling her each year, she does have a chance to decline the invitation though, and there was a link to do so for this year. Which daughter has immediately done!

Fair enough they have a duty of care, and that they give her the chance to decline the invitation, I would love to ask them though why is it so essential to attend this check up when they haven’t taken the slightest interest in the last 12 years, I don’t see what difference one birthday makes; what would they do that the hospital don’t; and if they don’t do anything different, what on earth is my daughter going to gain from repeating it all. Daughter is determined that she isn’t going to the appointment whatever though, and she’s an adult now so I shall have to let it drop there. She is going to ask the hospital team what they actually think about it though the next time we are there!
 
helli said:
I think the problem with my surgery and accepting what is in the letter from the diabetes clinic is that they don't just get money for doing the tests but also for the results of the test - I think they get more for patients in control (with lower HBA1c). Therefore, they need to complete a field in a form with the results to get this money. This is easy if they request the tests. A non-medical admin person can be taught which numbers they are looking for in a standard letter which they see every day.
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You're right about that @helli there is a second payment for the number of diabetic patients with lower Hba1cs.
 
Browser said:
Don’t want to hijack this thread but I thought this might be an appropriate thread to post this.
I am undergoing private cataract surgery in December. One of the things I must do is provide a letter from my doctor, giving a current statement of my blood sugar level. I contacted the clinic dealing with my surgery to say that I would rather not go through the process of getting an appointment with and a letter from my doctor ( whom I haven’t seen for 8 years since I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes).
I asked the clinic if a hard copy of the results of my recent Diabetic review would suffice, which they consented to.
I have been twice to clearly and succinctly request a print out of my Diabetic review results but twice they have given me a copy of my medical records, which do not include the details I require. I know that the diabetic nurse who conducts my review has an on screen copy of my results, which is what I want but articulating that to the office admin team seems to be a problem.
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Happy report that, after a bit of coming and going, I now have the information which I originally requested.
 
Result! Daughter had the practice manager on the phone who was very apologetic and said she is going to bring it up at the next meeting, about whether they can change the phrasing of the letter. She said they have had a few complaints recently. So I guess we can’t hope for more than that, I was expecting to hear no more about it so am quite pleased! And next year we will be prepared and know that we can just cancel the appointment when it comes up next time. Phew!
 
Well done to you and your daughter for challenging it and hopefully improving things in the future, not only for yourselves but for others too.
 
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