Monitoring your health and well being

Have you ever thought what else can YOU do to help yourself besides waiting for the doctor to call you back or book an appointment?

Patients used to just wait for the doctor to tell them what to do. Now patients and carers can do much more including viewing what is in their records, gaining a better understanding of their healthcare needs and monitoring their health and wellbeing so that they can ensure they remain well and are getting better and ask for help if things change or deteriorate and want more help!

Portrait of a nonbinary autistic person using their mobile phone indoors
  1. Get access to your GP electronic health records. Read what your doctor or nurse have written about you as well as seeing blood test results and also monitoring any trends eg becoming anaemic or diabetes control changing, results of scans, check what medications you should be taking, what allergies you have, check when you had certain procedures done, see when you were referred to the hospital and when they write back to the practice. You can also check if there are any errors in your records or information that may be missing You can also be granted proxy access for children you have parental responsiblity for as well as those you may care for too. Complete the online questionnaire now and contact the practice if you have not heard back within a couple of days.
  2. Try to speak to the same doctor, nurse or clinician if you have an ongoing healthcare issue so that you get continuity of care whether it is face to face or over the telephone. We can also offer video consultations if you like. You can then read what they have said, be reminded about what has been agreed and ensure you follow the advice given and when to seek help if you develop new symptoms or worsen and not sure what to do. The person who knows you from before may also be able to offer more advice if things change and they can see the difference.
  3. Use the practice website www.htmc.co.uk as a place to get trusted information from your practice to get a better understanding of your healthcare needs
  4. Ask about how you can monitor your health so you can also identify solutions to problems yourself, see when things are improving based on what you are doing and your lifestyle eg losing weight, cutting out carbohydrates, sweets, alcohol and smoking or choosing to walk more or have a more active lifestyle.
  5. Here are some things you can get relatively cheaply to help you monitor your health. Whilst we do not endorse any particular product or service, we provide examples here for you to go online and check or you could speak to your local pharmacist as well who may be able to help.