How would you feel if a single line in your medical record could destroy your chance of treatment — and you weren’t allowed to remove it?

 

Across the UK, patients are being denied care, misdiagnosed, traumatised, and disbelieved — not because of their health, but because of what’s been written about them in their NHS medical records.

 

These aren’t just admin errors. They’re life-altering entries:

 

“Non-compliant”

 

“Aggressive”

 

“Attention-seeking”

 

“Functional symptoms”

 

“Likely anxiety”

 

“Personality disorder traits” — without ever being assessed

 

 

Once in your records, these labels follow you everywhere:

 

Doctors start ignoring your symptoms

 

Specialists reject your referrals

 

Social services treat you with suspicion

 

Benefits are denied

 

Mental health concerns are assumed — even when the issue is physical

 

🧾 Only 78% of medical records are accurate — and that’s just the ones we know about.

 

That leaves millions of people vulnerable to false entries, outdated notes, or harmful assumptions.

And there’s no proper way to fix it.

 

Even when patients ask for corrections, most are told:

 

> “We don’t remove clinical opinion.”

“There’s no way to annotate your records.”

“It’s not our job to check what was written.”

 

⚠️ The Result?

 

Surgeries cancelled or denied

 

Life-threatening symptoms ignored

 

Safeguarding flags added behind patients' backs

 

Falsified history passed to external agencies

 

Mental health mislabels used to block physical treatment

 

Patients being branded “difficult” or “aggressive” for crying, questioning, or advocating for themselves

 

📣 We are calling on the following bodies to act:

 

Department of Health and Social Care

 

NHS England

 

General Medical Council (GMC)

 

Information

Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

 

UK Parliament Health and Social Care Committee

🔒 We demand:

 

1. Legal recognition of NHS medical records

 

Records must be treated as legally accountable documents.

False, negligent, or defamatory entries must carry consequences similar to tampering with court or police files.

 

2. A statutory right to correction and annotation

 

Every patient must have the legal right to:

 

Request corrections

 

Add notes or clarification

 

Appeal unfair or disputed entries

 

Have decisions reviewed within 28 days

 

 

3. Emergency review where treatment is denied

 

If a patient is refused treatment based on disputed notes, the decision must be reviewed by an independent clinician within 7 days.

 

4. Transparency in access and sharing

 

Patients must be:

 

Notified when their records are accessed or shared

 

Told what information was used

 

Given an option to opt-out of non-essential sharing (especially for external audits or third parties)

 

 

5. A national Medical Records Ombudsman

 

We need a neutral, independent body with the power to:

 

Investigate complaints

 

Correct records

 

Mandate retraining

 

Hold repeat offenders accountable

 

 

6. Redress for harm

 

Where a patient has been denied care, traumatised, or placed at risk due to record misuse, they must be entitled to:

 

A formal apology

 

Full correction

 

Compensation

 

Reinstatement of appropriate care

 

💬 Real Voices:

 

> “They said I was aggressive when I cried. I was just begging for pain relief.”

 

“My records said ‘likely FND’ — but I had a spinal injury. I nearly lost the use of my legs.”

 

“They refused to remove a personality disorder diagnosis I never had. It ruined every medical conversation after that.”

 

“Mum died waiting for cancer treatment because her pain was written off as anxiety.”

 

✊ This campaign is about:

 

Truth in healthcare

 

Protection for vulnerable patients

 

Ending stigma by system

 

Justice for those who’ve been silenced, mislabelled, or harmed

 

 

Medical records should be a tool for healing — not a weapon of harm

 

🖊️ Sign this petition if you believe every patient deserves:

 

Accurate records

 

A fair chance to be heard

 

The right to correct injustice

 

The dignity of being treated as a person, not a label

 

 

#FixTheRecords | #MedicalJusticeNow | #PatientsDeserveBetter