Please do not contact the practice to discuss the results of tests organised by other doctors or organisations.
The British Medical Association states that the clinician requesting any medical test is responsible for reviewing, acting on and communicating the results directly to the patient. Whoever requests a test will receive the results and is responsible for any follow up that is needed – this includes local NHS hospital, private hospitals or private ‘screening’ providers.
We have robust systems in place at Rockfield Medical Centre to ensure that tests requested by us are reviewed promptly and acted on appropriately by our doctors.
Patients are sometimes told ‘your GP can check the results on ECR’. Unfortunately this is incorrect – results being available on ECR does not transfer responsibility for following up or communicating test results to patients – GP’s have been advised that they should not check ECR for other organisations test results. Often these are specialised tests that GP’s are not familiar with interpreting.
For medicolegal and patient safety reasons, Rockfield Medical Centre has a strict practice policy that we do not check ECR for hospital results. We cannot make any exceptions.
We have been advised by SPPG that there are significant governance issues with the use of email for individual patient care. For this reason we do not accept emails regarding patients from other organisations.
If you are having difficulty accessing tests results organised by other organisations, we suggest you follow their complaints policy – links below.