Can fit note affect result of Appeal? SAR? NI?

I do agree that the practice/practice manager appears to be being obstructive! Every patient as the right to view their records, except for specific entries if the GP deems these to be harmful to the patient's health.

However, there are some things that are documented as being part of the protocol for patients reviewing their records (I don't know whether this has been set down by government or GMC). One of this is that someone from the practice should be with the patient while they are viewing their records.

Manual records should go back to birth (or the inception of the NHS for people born before this, although some records will pre-date this). However, the standard of record keeping was not always as good as it is now (and it is still sadly lacking in many cases!). It was not uncommon for entries to consist of just one word or to contain abbreviations known only to the individual doctor

There was a big push, back in the 1990s, to reduce the bulk of GP manual records and many practices pared these down mercilessly. Unfortunately, some people tended to 'throw out the baby with the bathwater' and remaining records can be very sparse (I speak from experience as I was involved in 'pruning' thousands of patient records during this time and was often told off for keeping too much!). Often this process was carried out by receptionist with no medical training, who worked from a tick-sheet

Trainee medics these days are taught the importance of good record-keeping so one hopes that recent records will be more comprehensive!

Hope this is helpful

I believe you can make a Subject Access Request for access to your records and if you just want to view them at the practice, they can't charge you for that. If your records are in electronic form, I think they can only charge £10 for your complete file or £50 if they're held in paper form.

I'm not sure what they can charge you if you inspect your records and ask for copies of specific pages but I would think if they're held in electronic form it would still only be £10. Obviously it might be easier for them to just print the whole lot and give it to you for £10, rather than having to supervise you whilst you view your records and provide print-outs of specific pages.

Having checked the link Gordon posted, I see they can charge you £10 for viewing your records but this also covers providing copies if they are electronic records.

Very helpful - thank you to all of you!

Throwing the baby out...yes, I think there are no records left for my childhood, only from 19 years onwards - and this is a new incarnation of the practice I was with in my teens - but when I moved away from home, I didn't know the address of the practice for my notes to be sent on, so my guess at it was probably inadequate. But perhaps the practice I'd moved to could have told me...

It is so helpful to hear your responses to this, as, with mental health problems it can be both depressing and confusing being in that sort of situation. Thanks!