‘Crossed wires’ led to patient fees gaffe

A HEALTH board has said “crossed wires” may have been to blame after a cancer patient was told she would be charged to look at her notes in Glasgow’s new hospital.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, was being treated at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in the acute receiving unit.

She was given an X-ray of her chest and stomach. She says she then asked to see her notes because she did not fully understand the doctor’s diagnosis.

She claims when she enquired if she could look at her records, which were in a folder on the door of her room, she was told by a nurse there would be a fee.

The 67-year-old, who is being treated for terminal stomach cancer, was unhappy about being asked to pay. She later asked a doctor and was given the notes.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it does not charge patients to access their medical notes. A spokesman said the error may have been down to “crossed wires”.

He said: “We must re-emphasise to you we do not have any mechanism to take any payment from any patients to look at their medical notes.”

Patients may be charged if an Access to Records application is made under the Data Protection Act (1998).

The charge, normally £10, covers the cost of copying medical records, although the legislation allows for a maximum charge of £50 in particularly complex cases.

Last year, England’s Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, announced plans to give patients south of the Border access to their entire medical record by 2018, and to let them read and add to their GP record using their smartphone within a year. BESPOKE framemaker Jane Hutchison puts the finishing touches to an evocative piece of art of a football team that is to go on display at an Edinburgh gallery.

Team 3 by Mark I’Anson, a former student at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, mixes pencil with paint.

Mr I’Anson has had 18 solo exhibitions in Scotland, Canada and London, including two that went on tour, entitled The Dream Team, with the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2003/04, and Drifter, with the Highland Council and the Scottish Fisheries Museum in 2006.

His art can be found in several public collections. Mr I’Anson’s latest exhibition is being held at the Arusha Gallery from Friday until May 2. Picture: Gordon Terris