- August 5, 2023
- Posted by: legaleseblogger
- Category: Related News
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Title: Violation of Confidentiality in Medical Records: Seeking Justice and Support
Introduction
My Abortion Experience and the Breach of Confidentiality
The Role of AI Legalese Decoder in Resolving the Issue
My Personal Ordeal
A couple of weeks ago, I found myself in a situation necessitating an abortion, which I had to undergo without my parents’ knowledge. The hospital administered a particular treatment that had severe side effects, causing immense pain and eventually leading to my hospitalization. I took precautions to ensure my parents were not listed as emergency contacts and even made written requests for my medical history to remain confidential.
The Invasion of Privacy
To my shock, my mother stormed into my room one day, handing me her phone with the Early Pregnancy Care Unit (EPCU) on the line. Regrettably, my mother had been contacted by the department despite her no longer being listed as an emergency contact in my records. It became apparent that the EPCU had not taken due care in safeguarding patient confidentiality as they had not verified the identity of the person they were speaking to. This violation revealed intimate details about my recent medical experiences to my mother, causing significant distress and tension in my family.
Consequences of the Breach
As a young woman suffering from anxiety, this breach of trust has taken a toll on my emotional well-being. I feel betrayed, scared, and uncertain about the implications of this situation. Furthermore, being financially dependent on my parents for university education, there is a deep concern that they may withdraw support, considering the strained relationship resulting from the breach.
The Role of AI Legalese Decoder
In such complex legal situations, the AI Legalese Decoder can be an invaluable resource. This advanced technology is designed to help individuals decrypt complex legal jargon, facilitating a clearer understanding of their rights and options. By utilizing this decoder, individuals can gain insights into how to proceed, what legal remedies are available, and how to navigate the reporting process effectively.
Seeking Justice and Support
In preparing to file an official complaint, it is essential to gather necessary information and seek guidance. The Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) is a recommended starting point, providing assistance in addressing complaints. However, it is prudent to know further avenues available for reporting purposes and making a meaningful impact.
Key Questions and Next Steps
In this regard, several questions emerge:
1. Likelihood of evidence deletion: It is crucial to assess the probability of call logs being tampered with or deleted by the responsible parties.
2. Entitlement to compensation: Exploring the possibility of seeking compensation for the negative impact of the NHS/Clinic’s negligence on my life and future prospects.
3. Other reporting options: Identifying additional organizations, beyond PALS, to report the violation, thus enhancing the chances of effecting change.
4. Shared experiences: Seeking insights from individuals who have faced similar breaches of confidentiality and understanding the likelihood of receiving a favorable response to complaints.
Conclusion
As I navigate this challenging situation, it is important to arm myself with knowledge and support. The AI Legalese Decoder plays a crucial role in decrypting legal complexities, ensuring I comprehend my rights and options fully. By taking these small steps and seeking justice, I hope to find resolution, regain a sense of security, and protect my future prospects.
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The hospital will have a Caldicott Guardian, this is the person who is responsible for patient confidentiality and you have a right to speak to them. Ask PALS to direct you to them.
NAL but work for the NHS. PALS donÔÇÖt deal with complaints, they will discuss what happened and try to work on a resolution to avoid a complaint being filed.
If you would prefer to make a formal complaint (which I think you should) each hospital or trust has there own complaints procedure, have a look on the website for the contact details for this, or if you canÔÇÖt find it then ask PALS for the information, they will be able to signpost you.
Here is some more information: https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/about-the-nhs/how-to-complain-to-the-nhs/
You can make a complaint to the ICO about a breach of your personal data. You can also seek a judicial remedy through the courts. The DP legislation now states that “harm” does not have to be physical and can be emotional distress.
However, if your mother pretended to be you and was able to answer security questions (if they were asked), then its not really the callers fault, its your mothers and that’s a different issue. Put in a formal complaint to the hospital and to the ICO.
>Am I entitled to compensation if it can be proved that the negligence displayed by the NHS/Clinic has had a negative impact on my life and my future?
On this point, the legal systems in the UK is very different to the US. Over there you often hear of people getting large settlements for “pain and suffering” and other such abstract concepts; in the UK, you *generally* sue someone to recover losses such that you’re back in the position where you started.
For example, if someone broke your brand new ┬ú1000 laptop, you could sue them for ┬ú1000 so you can get a new laptop – you won’t get more just because the loss of your laptop caused you to miss an assignment at university.
Your potential loss of funding for university at the moment is currently just that – a *potential* consequence. If it did happen, I’m not super convinced that you’ll be able to recover that, but that’s something I’d leave to someone more knowledgeable.
You should go through PALS first (via email). If you are after compensation, you likely need to sue. However, local resolution through PALS is often Trust’s policy before any legal escalation.
IÔÇÖm sorry. This is terrible. Patient confidentiality is practically sacrosanct. But IÔÇÖm genuinely horrified that someone could divulge such sensitive information. This is potentially a safeguarding matter, some patients would be placed in danger by this, and the NHS trust really need to look at their training and procedures. Legally I donÔÇÖt know. But when you contact PALS make sure you used the words ÔÇ£I am making an official complaintÔÇØ.
NAL but work for the NHS. As others have said you need to make an official complaint- but I would consider contacting the CQC and NHS England with this. You could even email the head of the NHS or chief nurse or midwife- their details are all online. This should be taken very seriously- itÔÇÖs absolutely unacceptable.
Just to add that of this did result in you being cut off financially and this had an impact on your studies then you should get in touch with your universityÔÇÖs advice team. You would likely be eligible either for a hardship grant or could change your status with SLC for a bigger loan.
PALS are a conciliation service and will try to avoid this being a formal complaint (even if they initially label it as a a complaint).
Please make a formal complaint to the relevant Integrated Care Board. You can find your local ICB here:
https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/find-your-local-integrated-care-board/
Hadley v baxendale. When quantifying what your ‘loss’ was (and therefore what compensation you’re entitled to) the loss of your uni tuition and accommodation would have to have been a reasonably foreseeable consequence at the time of the breach. There’s nothing here to suggest that the NHS knew that a GDPR breach would have caused that loss and it’s not reasonably foreseeable for them to have known it may have that consequence (of losing your your paid uni fees etc)
For a GDPR breach you’d be looking at a potential claim for non-material damage i.e. distress. Quantifying that won’t be easy.
If you do proceed with all the recommended actions here you would need to gather as much evidence as possible to prove the causation between the NHS negligence and your parents withdrawing their funding for university etc. Unfortunately I believe that the chances of you recovering that amount are quite slight, because your parents withdrawing the funding is not directly caused by the NHS disclosing your personal data but their own volition and personal characteristics, so the damage you will incur is indirect. Of course you could very well claim moral damage for breaching your confidentiality etc, but you will have to prove the damage incurred as well, you will likely receive compensation for this if you actually changed your emergency contacts for this particular hospital, but I can’t really tell you whether the payout will be worth the hassle.
All in all, unfortunately in this case the biggest damage you will suffer by your parents withdrawing their funding is the one that you are least likely to receive compensation for, so it would be a safer bet to take action to ensure that this funding continues by perhaps conciliating with them. So, if you only care about the money, I don’t believe taking legal action is worth it in this case.
NAL but work in the NHS. There are many many patient systems and numbers/NOK/correspondence details can quite easily be forgotten if changing, not all main systems have access to the GP records either.
I would say there’s more to it, generally admin do not talk to family members unless it is something rudimental like booking an appointment, but I believe certain departments (like EPU) should be more careful. I would ask if your Mum did clear the ID checks/essentially impersonated you or if the admin did truly make a monumental mistake.
Definitely contact PALS and ask to speak to the head of department, call logs and system audits cannot be tampered with by general admin people so you don’t need to worry about people covering it up.
Make a formal complaint to their data protection officer, explain that there has been ÔÇ£significantÔÇØ and ongoing distress caused by breaching patient confidentiality, and also financial loss to be experienced. DonÔÇÖt faff about with anything else. There are some strict rules about response etc. Let me know if you need any help raising etc
IÔÇÖm unfamiliar with the hospital systems, but I do believe there are systems in place for this. But thatÔÇÖs for someone else to explain.
But why arenÔÇÖt your tuition fees covered by student finance? Provided youÔÇÖre not attending one of the very few, rather pointless, private universities, and this is your first time at uni, and have been resident in the country for the last three years, you are entitled to have it covered.
Provided that is true, youÔÇÖd also be entitled to a maintenance loan – IÔÇÖm not sure if at 21 it takes parental income into account or not, so I canÔÇÖt comment on how much youÔÇÖd get.
But if you have to move out, contact your student union. They have funds and resources in place to cover rent until you get your student loan, and may be able to help cover your rent, or give you reduced rates at uni accommodation, due to the circumstances.
Definitely make a report to the ICO in addition to anything through the hospital or trust. They should refer themselves but in case they donÔÇÖt you will have highlighted it with the organisation that enforces compliance with data protection regulations.
I feel for the OP, they should make a complaint to the Hospital, there has been a failure of the system.
That said, this is not likely to be a malicious act by anybody – it is far more probable that is is a problem with the complexity of NHS systems. What has almost certainly happened is that your details have been looked up on a central system in order to contact you or your next of Kin, and those details have not been updated.
I work for the NHS and have some knowledge of the computing. Every hospital I have worked at has multiple interconnected systems – Patient Administration, Pharmacy, Pathology etc. All should eventually update any changes to the central NHS care record – but these changes are far from instantaneous – so there is always a possibility of a delay or failure to update.
As to whether OP can gain compensation because her parent’s are unwilling to support her based on her situation, rather than what she wanted them to think – I have no idea and will leave that to the legal experts.
NAL. I would also report it to the ICO this is a breach of GDPR. Not only personal but Medical data this will be taken very seriously.
Don’t worry about records being deleted, that doesn’t happen. Depending on the computer system being used, things can be edited. However, the IT department can see who has accessed your information and what they viewed and if anything was edited. It is very unlikely this has happened. I would suggest contacting their information department and requesting your notes. This will take time and so I wouldn’t wait for the notes to put in a PALS complaint. But, having access to your notes will help you to see where your mother’s contact details were listed, and what number was listed as the primary contact – should be yours. You may be able to find their policy online regarding confidentiality. Reading this before making a complaint may help you be really clear in writing about what has happened, but isn’t necessary as PALS will know the policy. You can also contact the manager of the department for a discussion about how this happened, this won’t help in terms of compensation etc, but may help you to understand what mistake was made and why/how, this won’t affect your ability to put in a PALS complaint.
I worked in an NHS complaints department for 6 years, left 7 years ago but I can’t imagine much has changed since then. We had a complaints team and a PALS team. PALS dealt with smaller issues or those that needed to be resolved quickly, complaints dealt with bigger and more serious issues.
You should contact PALS, but do it in writing so you can fully articulate all of your concerns and complaints. If compensation is your goal, stating it at the beginning would be a good idea. It won’t affect the investigation, but you might get the resolution you want quicker rather than raising it after the investigation has been done.
You’ll receive a response advising that they’ll investigate it and then write back to you with their findings, you might also be offered phone calls of face-to-face meetings with the investigators.
If you’re not happy with the outcome, you can contact the Health Service Ombudsman, but you need to wait until after the investigation has been done. The Ombudsman’s office will contact the hospital to request copies of all investigation documents to conduct their own investigation (obviously if the hospital hasn’t investigated it yet, the Ombudsman will have to wait until that’s completed)
Re deleting call logs – this is unlikely. Every NHS clinical system that I know of is fully auditable, which means that if someone deleted a record, there would be a record of that deletion along with who deleted it and when. It does happen on occasion, but it makes the situation much worse for the person under investigation. Often deleted information can be recovered.
It would be unusual for a member of NHS staff not to know this, so the vast majority would never attempt to delete evidence.
IÔÇÖm so sorry this happened to you. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from PALS, you will have the option to escalate the complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. There is some further info about that here:
http://www.ombudsman.org.uk/making-complaint/what-we-can-and-cant-help
PALS is basically to mediate before it get to a complaint. Skip them. Go straight to the formal complaints procedure.
>I say this because this person did not verify she was speaking to the correct person.
Do you have proof of this? Your mother knows your personal details and could possibly have answered enough questions to convince the other person she was speaking to you. In that case, they are not at fault. Your mother is for impersonating you. They may provide transcripts of the call if available that might be the first thing to get by doing subject access request specifically around that day.
NAL. IÔÇÖm really sorry this has happened. The hospital has failed you and it seems youÔÇÖd parents are too. I hope you are ok.
Complain to PALS to get the ball rolling. You can then escalate to a formal complaint to the chief exec of the hospital. They should then exert pressure an d have oversight if the complaint. Depending on how good they are, this may or may not help the process.
The organisation should admit that something went wrong here. It probably does fall under the criteria for duty of candour, as some harm (albeit not physical) resulted. With regard to covering things up, it should not happen, especially if the Trust is alive to the failings raised in reports published in the last few years. That being said, call logs or no call logs, the fact that your mother appeared unexpectedly, against your express wishes, should render the need for delving into telephone records moot.
From experience, the comment on here about HanlonÔÇÖs razor is a good one, this was probably an act of stupidity rather than malice. The person who phoned your mum as NOK needs to help explain where the number was in your record. This in turn may start to explain why it is there.
From experience, the explanation can be that the record was changed by the wrong party (some records, principally those relating to demographic data, need to be changed by the GP practice. This in turn updates centrally, the hospital data is then subsequently pulled or refreshed from this.) sometimes ÔÇ£correspondenceÔÇØ details are changed rather than next of kin. The list of irritating details goes on. I suspect, as a root cause some problem has occurred with this process.
The hospital should do some investigating of the issues at hand, fulsomely apologise in a letter or a meeting – and that is it.
As others have said, if you are seeking financial redress you need to litigate. The complaints re process ends in explanation m, admission of failings if they exist and apology, not promise of compensation (many people donÔÇÖt seem to understand this and waste time angling for it within a complaint) The findings of the complaint response/investigation should be shared with you, they should be honest and you in turn can give them to any solicitors you chose to enlist.
NALbut medicolegal cases initially hinge on three legal tests: 1. Duty of care: The trust certainly had a duty of care to you, which (if the facts are as they stand) they failed. 2. Reasonable standard of care. Their behaviour fell below a reasonable standard, in my view. 3. Harm. I would argue harm has been sustained, but as others have said, psychological harm does not have the heft of a US suit and I dont know how a solicitor would pursue financial loss relating to uni, accom etc.
TLDR: complain, the trust should be honest, (itÔÇÖs probably an IT/meatware problem?). If you want ┬ú┬ú┬ú the trust wonÔÇÖt volunteer to do this, get a solicitor.
I work in the private sector and this is most definitely a breach of GDPR. When calling patients you need to verify whom youÔÇÖre on the phone too and should only ever speak to the patient directly unless the patient has advised and given written/verbal consent thatÔÇÖs been documented to state otherwise. I would make a formal complaint and contact CQC
I cant help with the nhs advice but I can with university.
If parents don’t pay tuition you can become independent in order for the goverment to pay tuition if you are a British citizen.
Link for more information here and look under the specifications for being independent. Being estranged is one of them. Best of luck to you op https://www.sfengland.slc.co.uk/include-household-income-in-your-student-finance-application/#:~:text=You're%20classed%20as%20an,you%20have%20no%20living%20parents
It sounds like when they called the house they assumed your mum was you? They would normally ask for the person and say they were calling from said hospital but not divulge any further information. If your mum has said she is you that is also a serious issue. Also IÔÇÖm sorry if your parents would use this against you to stint your education.
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First and foremost. Please write down what has happened and your worry.
Secondly, get a Subject Access Request and request everything related to this including phone numbers. This is useful to see if there are mistakes and if there was some kind of misconduct or data breach.
Thirdly, please contact the Information Commissioners Office. They will have some help for data protection breaches and this is something you can report to them about it. Also they can provide advice for free as well.
Fourthly, you may be experiencing domestic abuse and it also appears to be Asian misogyny.
There is a study which gives a good guide on South Asian misogyny. It gives a lot of studies explaining the types of misogyny and patriarchy in South Asia and in South Asian people in the UK before carrying out their research. IÔÇÖm just mentioning this because the service you may get may not understand South Asian misogyny.
The study is below.
ÔÇ£Attitudes of South Asian men in the UK toward women and their understanding of and justification for domestic violenceÔÇØ
By
Harjinder Kaur.
Back to the domestic abuse, I would contact refugee and womenÔÇÖs aid. They should be able to help you on that front. IÔÇÖm aware Karma Nirvana is specific towards Asian misogyny and domestic abuse but itÔÇÖs mostly towards Honour abuse now. You local council should be able to help you if they have a domestic abuse officer if not the local authority should be able to help with social workers. There might be some family law firms who can help you with this matter as well make sure they can deal with harassment and stalking as well.
Fifthly, please contact legal aid as they may help you with actions against public bodes but also make sure they have experience in Data Breaches and data protection laws. I would also contact citizen advice as well as it might be a little quicker. Again legal aid may help you with the family law but as well but please make sure they deal with stalking and harassment because it seems your mother is doing both and there is case laws on it.
Edit- added info on councils and social worker.
NAL but I would assume you have grounds to sue the trust for divulging confidential information.
It is a big NO and can lead to dismissal of the member of staff that divulged the information. I would definitely do a formal complaint (not PALs) and look at trying to sue the trust.
NAL. did you check if your motherÔÇÖs phone number was listed as your contact number? My oldest is only a tween and has a phone but my number is the number that gets NHS texts as his contact number. Maybe that is a carryover from when you were a minor?
Still sucks but different issue.
This is almost certainly a GDPR breach. I would contact the ICO and Patient Advice Liaison service. This is the very definition of leaking sensitive medical information without consent, and without up to date records.
This is a GDPR breach, so report it to the ICO and make a complaint to the hospital. The hospital should ensure they are talking to you before divulging any sensitive information, that’s how I’ve always understood it works – and this is likely policy within the hospital. So with that in mind this is not only a GDPR breach, but one caused by negligence. I’m not a lawyer so I don’t know if you would be entitled to any compensation unless you could prove material losses due to the breach.
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NAL but what good will harassing the NHS do? It won’t change the historical fact your parents know. Its rubbish, it’s awful but it’s done.
Given the sheer ammounts of hoops that an individual would have to go through in order to inform your parents of the treatment you had there is a very good case for a lawsuit against the NHS as they cannot under any circumstances breach GDPR (with the main part that comes to mind being that outdated information CANNOT be stored or used)
And it certainly appears that the individual responsible for the breach can also be held liable as their political beliefs almost certainly made them feel like it was their duty to bypass multiple layers of personal data.
Its also going to be impossible for the messages to be deleted unless your getting into conspiracy territory for this exact reason. Institutions get sued all the time they will keep the info on hand to cover their ass and to speed up legal proceedings
As for what I would recommend:
Lodge a formal complaint with the NHS (they cannot do anything if they dont know about the nuke they just set off)
If you are not satisfied with their responce get a lawyer (as you are living with your parents i would recommend a no win no fee due to them typically taking payment from the winnings/settlement rather than charging you)
Then you will 100% need to talk to your university and tell them that you are at serious risk of losing both your tuition and housing through no fault (they may also have legal advice/help available for the prior but its not a guarantee)
Typically universities can pull alot of strings but they take time (in my uni days there were a couple units in each village reserved for people who’s lives were just upended) with the most common basic support being an offer to put your education on pause rather than kick you out.