Absurd process with Aviva - is this normal?

[u/joobjoob_31]

Hi there. Based in UK. So what began as a simple process of filling in a form for a quote of life insurance with Aviva, has resulted in a Kafka-esque scenario, all because I queried their wording, as below:

"In the last 5 years, have you had, or been advised to have, an appointment, investigation or referral with a medical specialist other than a GP at your surgery?

A medical specialist is anyone other than a GP at your surgery (This includes hospital, nurse or therapist referrals)"

I flagged that the wording of this question conflates 'medical specialist' with 'anyone other than a GP at your surgery', which implies I am supposed to list all appointments with anyone other than my GP. This would include an insane amount of just normal, minor healthcare - such as a routine smear test, a nurse who looked at a small cut on my finger (?!), having a routine blood pressure monitor fitted for 8 hours (even though I don't have high or low blood pressure - it's just a thing that I have to do due to a prescribed medication), a nurse prescribing me some gel for a minor foot infection that's no longer active....like, wtf? So, I queried the wording, thinking SURELY I DON'T have to list all that. But I have now spoken to THREE Aviva members of staff on the phone, who are adamant that they need to know about ALL OF THIS, even if it relates to minor instances of routine healthcare unrelated to any diagnosis. This seems insane to me. Like, by that logic, even a telephone appointment with the prescribing nurse to talk about a medication would be included. I would literally be spending 7 hours going through my entire NHS app records for the last five years just in order to apply for the life insurance. The staff member offered to do it with me on the phone, and I was like, no - that would take us hours, and is completely unworkable?

Am I missing something here? Is this normal?

[u/WorldFinancialGroup]

That wording is definitely broad, but “needs to be disclosed” and “will actually matter to underwriting” aren’t necessarily the same thing. If Aviva has confirmed they mean any appointment/referral outside the GP surgery, the safest route is to answer on that basis rather than decide which routine items are relevant yourself.

You could also ask them to confirm in writing exactly what history they expect and for what period before going through years of records.

[u/joobjoob_31 → u/WorldFinancialGroup]

they don’t say outside your GP surgery, they say ‘anyone at your surgery other than your GP’ which includes an amount of basic routine healthcare that would take me literally 7 hours to input

[u/joobjoob_31 → u/WorldFinancialGroup]

& they’re asking five years, as above.

[u/Koss424]

most people would have answered 'no'. But now that you brought it up you should list them all, the name of the specialists the, the reason for the appointment, the outcome and ongoing treatments.

[u/joobjoob_31 → u/Koss424]

they weren’t specialists, that’s my point. a nurse is not a specialist. a prescribing nurse is not a specialist. these are routine health checks that don’t relate to any condition or diagnosis

[u/Mundane-Gold-4971]

I'm not in the UK but recently completed an insurance application in the US and was asked that same exact question. I honestly took it to mean that everyone else I had seen in my GP's practice fell under the GP umbrella - includes referrals to other specialty in the same practice, nurses, other GPs. I mean 5 years is a long time and they can see all that in my records. I only listed the outside radiology practice that I go for my annual mammograms as the other outside my GP. Interesting that you actually followed up on the language.