Birthday Medical Review (BMR)

What is the BMR?

It is a personalised review of a patients chronic disease (diabetes, asthma, COPD, heart disease etc.).

Why do we do a BMR ?

To improve the efficiency of our review process and to streamline patients care. It will also reduce the amount of appointments patients need to attend as all conditions will be reviewed during the one BMR annual review appointment. A Patient’s Birthday month is a good way of alerting patients to when their review is due, so they don’t have to wait for a letter. Please help us use our resources better, if its your Birthday, don’t wait for a letter!

How does it work?

We run searches to identify patients who need a review based on their medical conditions. To evenly distribute the reviews throughout the year, we have chosen to base this on their birthday month.

We hope that patients will be proactive and book a BMR appointment about a month before their Birthday before we send a letter. (this saves postage costs and staff time) We may also do this by phone so please ensure we have the correct contact details and these are kept up to date.

Some conditions will require patients to have a blood test as part of the review. This should be done before the formal review to ensure we have the results available and to reduce the need for the patient to return again. Patients will be advised at the time of booking a BMR appointment if a blood test is required. Any further appointments required will be booked at each appointment.

Why a patient may be contacted?

If patients do not think they are due an annual review BMR. We would ask that patients query this with our Receptionists. If we do need to send a letter do not ignore the invitation Contact us in this instance so that we can discuss this and update our records if necessary.

We ask that you phone us after the busy time in the morning, phone after 10.30am when possible.

Do patients need to do anything or bring anything to the appointment?
A number of patients will need their blood pressure checking. If it is raised we will ask them to come back for a repeat or check it at home.

If a patient already checks their blood pressure at home, we would ask them to monitor their readings over a week and bring them to their appointment.

Some patients, including diabetics, will need to bring a sample of the first urine of the day in a white top bottle.

If a patient uses an inhaler please remember to bring them and any associated devices (e.g. spacers) in with them to their appointment.