When I went for my initial CAA Class 1, c. 2008, they required me to sign a form for the GP to hand over the whole file, and would not proceed unless I signed it.
Are you required to have a GP? I have asked GPs in the past to destroy records because what good can come from it? I do have an obligation to disclose conditions with the AME but I don’t need to have LBA sniff on my medical records.
Are you required to have a GP?
You are not – a good point. I did not have a GP until the 1990s.
Whether anybody would believe somebody in his 50s saying he has no GP, is another matter…
I buy health insurance that specifically does not require that I have a designated primary care physician. I actually did have a guy I used in that role, but he died a year or so ago and his records are no longer available to me or anybody. That leaves pharmacy records, which can be bought, but in my case (happily) there aren’t a lot of those.
I have a physical scheduled for next month with a new guy, paper records of prior treatment and no GP. My medical history is propriety data, and I make efforts to keep it that way. It’s increasingly important to me as I get older.
It’s apparent to me that in a digital world it’s only a matter of time before somebody uses available medical records against you, using potentially flawed judgement that you won’t be in a position to contest.
I have asked GPs in the past to destroy records because what good can come from it?
Records are partly for the benefit patient and partly for the benefit of the doctor – e.g. ‘patient advised not to go diving due to bulla found incidentally on X-ray’. Patient dies of a his lung exploding underwater 10 years hence. X-ray and report held in a separate file and probably survive. Doctor will be very glad if he still has the records. Patient would have been glad if he’d gone to get a diving medical and his current doctor had a note of the condition.
I can’t envisage circumstances in which records should be destroyed or in which you could persuade a doctor to destroy them (unless they contained evidence of a medical error). In the NHS they have to be kept for a given length of time after the patient’s death – generally at least 10 years and more in certain circumstances.
I agree with Silvaire – it’s often extremely useful in my local hospital emergency department to be able to quickly access a list of previous attendances, test results and what they were for, but expanded, joined up versions of these systems are going to end up being abused.
Whether anybody would believe somebody in his 50s saying he has no GP, is another matter…
Yes, I would. Quite a lot of people remain in good health until they’re a good age. Often get men in their 60s who haven’t had cause to see a doctor for a few decades. Last week, a 90 something year old on no medications and a week or two before that an 80-something year old medical professional who’d been taking a gram of aspirin a day since his 30s and hadn’t been to see anybody about anything until he came to see me with a gastric ulcer. Locally there’s a hundred and something man who still drives and looks about 80. His son is about 80, and looks to be in his fifties.
It always pleases me when I meet these people. In hospitals you meet so many sick elderly people that it’s nice to be reminded that all elderly people are not sick.
Interestingly on my last medical, the AME thought he saw something on my ECG that needed to be run past a cardiologist as a second opinion, and as such wouldn’t issue my EASA class 2 at that time. However, I was also getting my FAA Class 2 at the same physical, and he had no problem issuing that as the FAA didn’t require an ECG.
(Turns out it was all normal and ok).
The USA has a good number of AME services like this one (which I picked at random):
There seems to be a key difference with Europe in that this is legally possible at all, whereas in Europe an AME is an agent of his national CAA and – in the words of one European AME I spoke to years ago – there is no such thing as “off the record” chat. Of course that isn’t the reality in face to face interaction but he is supposed to report everything back to the CAA. Even in cases where I asked an AME about other people with specific conditions, not covered in Part MED clearly, he asked me to tell the person to contact him directly.
On top of that, the FAA has a clear list of “self grounding conditions” whereas practically speaking the whole of EASA Part MED is a list of self grounding conditions.
One can guess what effect the European system has on people getting medical stuff sorted out “off the books”…
OTOH some FAA medical stuff is incredibly strict, like a repeat angiogram for a Class 1 or 2 if you have ever had anything done there.
I don’t think it is true for German AMEs. All physicians in Germany are obligated by law to keep the patients data and medical history safe from third parties. This applies to all physicians regardless of where they work and what they do. AFAIK there is no exception for AMEs. You could seek one out and have an off the record chat. Of course the actual process of extending the medical does require contact with the CAA, but I don’t see why you shouldn’t be able to gather informal advice beforehand.
Patient doctor confidentiality goes so far in Germany that if I as a doctor treat someone who injured himself during breaking into someone elses house and he tells me so as a patient I’m not allowed to contact the police about this, with very few exceptions where I have to expect that he will harm someone else soon. The Germanwings Crash is an (unfortunate) case in point.
One can guess what effect the European system has on people getting medical stuff sorted out “off the books”…
If it does not leave a scar, keep it quiet. Vagal syncope? Never mention it on any form, and do not talk about it to anyone. Kidney stone?
If you are completely honest, after a certain age you will be in a heap of hurt. But don’t hide stuff that can be seen on a CT Scan 
That is also what I have heard from US pilots – private, military and commercial.
What the authorities achieve by being too strict is that one ends up hiding facts.
I understand this has become much stricter in recent years.
