Having a scan
A First Visit to a Family Practice: Records and Routines
What to bring to a first visit at a family practice, how an annual physical is organised, and when a patient portal replaces a telephone call.
A first visit to a family practice works best when the patient brings a short set of records: a list of current medicines with doses, details of allergies, the names of any specialists seen in the past year, and vaccination dates if these are to hand. An annual physical examination is a scheduled review rather than a single test, built from history, measurements, and a small number of checks chosen for the person in front of the clinician. A patient portal usually replaces a telephone call for results, repeat prescription requests, and appointment changes, while the telephone remains the route for anything that needs a conversation or an urgent decision.
What should I bring to a first visit at a new family practice?
The practical answer is a single page of paper or a note on a phone. A new practice has no history for the patient, so the first appointment is partly an exercise in transferring facts. The useful items are: a list of medicines with the dose and how often each is taken, including anything bought over the counter and any herbal preparation; allergies and the reaction each one caused; the dates of the last tetanus, influenza, and COVID-19 vaccinations if these are known; the names of hospitals or specialists seen in the previous twelve months; and any recent test results or discharge letters the patient already holds. A photo identification and the registration paperwork requested by the practice are administrative rather than clinical, but they prevent a second trip.
A checklist of this kind is common in family medicine on both sides of the Atlantic, and a comparable first visit family practice checklist is published for readers in the United States. The clinical logic does not change with the health system: the record travels with the patient, and the first consultation is where it is handed over.
What actually happens during an annual physical exam?
An annual physical examination in the UK is not a fixed national ritual. What is offered depends on age, sex, existing conditions, and the practice. A typical review includes a conversation about changes since the last visit, a measurement of blood pressure, weight, and sometimes waist circumference, and a check of smoking and alcohol use. For adults over 40, an NHS Health Check is offered every five years in England, covering cholesterol, blood pressure, and diabetes risk; the UK Health Security Agency publishes guidance on the checks and their timing. For women, cervical screening is offered from 25 to 64 at intervals set by the NHS. For adults over 65, the review may include a falls risk question and a medication review.
The examination itself is usually brief. A clinician may listen to the heart and lungs, feel the abdomen, and look at the skin. Blood tests are not automatic; they are ordered when the history or the measurements suggest a reason. The annual physical is therefore better understood as a structured conversation with measurements attached, not as a battery of scans. Imaging such as a chest X-ray or an ultrasound is not part of a routine annual review and is requested only when a specific question needs an answer.
When should I use a patient portal instead of calling the clinic?
A patient portal is the right route for transactions that do not need a spoken reply: viewing a test result that has already been released, requesting a repeat prescription, booking or cancelling a routine appointment, and updating an address or telephone number. It is also the route for a non-urgent question that can wait one working day for a written answer. The telephone remains the route when the matter is urgent, when the patient needs to speak to a clinician, when a result is confusing and needs explanation, and when the portal is not working. In the UK, NHS login and the NHS App provide this function for many practices, and the Care Quality Commission inspects how practices handle access and records.
A common error is to send a clinical question through a portal and then wait. Portals are not monitored continuously. If a symptom is new and worrying, the telephone or NHS 111 is the correct channel, not a message that may sit until the next working day.
How the records move between settings
When a patient registers with a new practice in the UK, the previous practice sends the electronic record through the NHS spine, and the new practice receives it within days rather than weeks. Paper records, where they exist, are posted. The patient does not need to carry the full history, but the summary care record and the list of medicines are the parts that matter most in the first weeks. For imaging, the Royal College of Radiologists advises that reports are held in the local radiology information system and are accessible to the referring clinician; a patient can request a copy of a report, and the practice can retrieve images if a second opinion is needed. The Society of Radiographers notes that patients may ask for their images on disc, though this is not routine.
What the annual review does not include
An annual physical does not include a full body scan, a routine chest X-ray, or a set of tumour marker blood tests. NICE guidance is explicit that such tests are not screening tools for asymptomatic adults, and the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017, available on legislation.gov.uk, require that any exposure to ionising radiation is justified for the individual. The Health and Care Professions Council regulates radiographers, and the professional standards require that imaging is only performed when there is a clinical question. A patient who expects a scan at an annual review may be disappointed, but the absence of a scan is usually the correct clinical position.
| Item | Usually brought by the patient | Usually held by the practice |
|---|---|---|
| Medicine list | Yes, with doses | Yes, after first review |
| Allergy history | Yes | Yes |
| Vaccination dates | If known | Yes, from previous practice |
| Recent test results | If held | Yes, via NHS spine |
| Imaging reports | Rarely | Yes, in radiology system |
Checked against the source
- The NHS Health Check is offered every five years to adults in England aged 40 to 74, as set out by the UK Health Security Agency in its guidance on the NHS Health Check programme, published 2021.
- The Care Quality Commission inspects general practices in England and publishes its findings, as described in its inspection framework, updated 2023.
- The Royal College of Radiologists states that imaging reports are held in local radiology information systems and are available to referring clinicians, in its guidance on radiology reporting, 2022.
- The Society of Radiographers notes that patients may request copies of their images, in its patient information guidance, 2021.
- The Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017, on legislation.gov.uk, require justification of each medical exposure, as amended 2018.
- The Health and Care Professions Council sets standards of proficiency for radiographers, published 2017 and updated 2023.
The confusion between a check-up and a scan
A frequent misunderstanding is that an annual physical examination includes imaging. In the UK, a check-up is a clinical review, and a scan is a separate investigation ordered when a specific question arises. The two are not the same appointment, and a patient who asks for a scan at an annual review is usually asking for a test that has no justification under the regulations. The correct sequence is a conversation with a clinician, a decision about whether imaging would change management, and a referral if it would. The records brought to the first visit make that decision easier, because the clinician can see what has already been done and what has not.
A first visit to a family practice turns on records and routines: what a patient brings, how an annual physical is arranged, and when a patient portal replaces a telephone call. The same administrative habits appear in other settings where written procedures govern daily contact with the public. Small businesses, for instance, set out how they handle staff sickness and the notices customers read, a subject covered in the shop infection control policy. Both pages share a concern with documented routines, though one addresses clinical appointments and the other commercial premises.
A first visit to a family practice often marks the start of a longer record, one that later includes the arrival of a child. The administrative side of that period, covering paternity and parental leave, the forms sent to an employer and the health insurance fund, and the practical questions raised in a baby's first months, is set out on the page about leave after a birth. Both pages deal with the same household at different points, and each keeps its own subject: records and routines at the surgery, paperwork and leave away from it.