Supporting evidence

I am helping my wife to submit a claim for pip. She has little in the way of supporting evidence. If I were to write a letter detailing how her condition affects her and what support she needs from me would that be of any use or would it be viewed as being from the husband and of no value?

Dear noah,
I am sorry you have little in the way of supporting evidence.

Your online record with your GP surgery which you can access by first registering and then logging in has so many resources ( I go to Appointments and log in in that section for log in ‘ for online services’) and then I have access to my medical records.

The online patient record includes internal records which are of great value because normally those are not sent to the patient but for instance to the surgery, to MSK physiotherapy, it could be notes the physiotherapist writes on his computer ( that you may see write but do not know what it is, as it is not addressed to you which I later found out were comments about the way I walked for instance, the inability to do some exercises, the fact I was discharged because they could not help me anymore), it could be notes about the dangers of your medication.

I believe they are of great value because they are not designed to be seen by the patient, so if they say things that back up what you say for PIP or ESA, they may even be of greater value than a letter one may pay his GP to do.

I am not putting down the GP letter to use as support for esa or pip as I paid my previous GP on many occasions to do so. But ‘without’ a GP letter of support from my new surgery with doctors changing often and not knowing me, I even got an increase of award using these patient online records.

What did I find out on my online patient record?
- first I go to Appointments and log in at “ Login for Online Services”
- then at the top we see:
Appointments (book, future and past)
Medication
Records
And there is much more for one to find out…

In records, the Summary Patient Record lists:
- all the Allergies and Sensitivities with their start date.
- Acute Medication issued in the last 12 months
- Current Repeat Medication
- Past Repeat Medication, discontinued in the last 6 months,( well in my record)

In Records we can select Patient Record:
and select dates, we can go back years!!!!!

Everything is noted.

You will also see some little icons like a paper clip ( A & E letter for instance in my case),
An envelope icon ( a copy of the letter sent to me to my home address)

My record also shows if I click on the icons, A&E letter addressed to my GP, my CT scan, Xray, MRI’S, Physiotherapist reports (very useful as they comment on the way I walk, internal MSK referrals, comments from pharmacist and GP warning me about medication risks of heart attacks etc. There are so many internal documents out there.

When we click on these icon, ie those documents, one can view them or download them.
You can print them to use at a future date and put them in a file, and you can send them to the books (orange) app if you have a apple ipad, I do not not if you have that option in an other ipad.

Even when we speak to a receptionist it is noted but not everytime I call.
When they get your results back a GP could write for instance that they recommend you speak to a GP about the result.

In my case I found it hard a few years ago to get a letter of support from people knowing me and who had seen me deteriorating, yet my next door neighbour in the building offered to write one letter of support for me where she said she could see me having difficulties moving around as she was living next door to me.
She did not write her address, only her email and telephone number. I recalled searching online and finding out it was ok to have a letter of supporting evidence even without an address. (Even if I believe having the address is better).

I hope all the information above will be helpful to you.
Best wishes

Brilliant advice. If only all GPs were like this. My online records are usually quite bare and a lot is missing, I even have a GP appointment in a few weeks and that's not even showing! Every time I look there is less and less. It would be so nice if it was standardised

Hello,

I forgot to mention that regardless as to whether or not you have access to your online record, you can still get your full records for free which the GP surgery printed for me, if I recall it was around 200 pages that was around 3 years ago coming in about 4 or 5 big A4 envelopes, very well organised with starting date and ending date of each documents written on top of each envelope.

Not all internal documents seem to show on my online records with your GP’s.

If I speak to the GP receptionist and any other member of staff, for instance, in my case I was asked “how are you?” I replied I was not well and in pain.
Why? -i) because it is the truth, that is one of the reasons why I called to book a GP appointment
(Even GP’s ask me how I am, I never said well, because if I go to them it is because I am not well in the first place)
- and ii) because I have seen on previous records GP receptionist can make comments about many things including the reason for an appointment with a GP.

At times I have seen things I disagreed with, even on my A&E report which I could not use.

So I tend to say little and repeat what is important as it is likely to be written in one of the documents I can get my GP to print for free for me, otherwise if I give too much information the receptionist writes what is not important or could deform what I said.

So when my GP surgery asked how I was a few days ago,, I replied I was not well and in pain which is true and It may also be noted on their records.
I am not going to say I am well as they could well write this down.

Best wishes