Data protection breach at drs surgery - compensation?

They are, they can be fined for the data breach. It used to be £400, No idea what it is now, but was it a company data breach?

No. It was all down to one terrible employee.

This.

I'd want the person sacked. There hasn't been any medical negligence to sue the NHS for and as far as I'm aware you cannot sue for distress.

Try one of the no fee no win medical helplines because it's a big thing.

I have a company willing to take me on for medical negligence resulting in physical damage to me. I have a 3 year window to make the claim.

I'd rather just piss off and put it all behind me. Mine involved tge surgery, the pharmacist, the specialist referred to...

So no, I don't think you have a chance of any compensation. An apology and the person being sacked is probably all that could happen.

Of course employers should be held responsible for the conduct of their employees, especially when it seriously affects service users!

Doctors surgeries are now private businesses so yes you should be compensated and if you aren’t take them to court without worrying you’re taking money from the NHS as it’ll be a private business who can cope with that and will be well insured too!

I have precious little time for hurt feelingz complaints. But medical providers in general and the NHS, as a public body, in particular should be held to the highest of standards. All staff should be fully aware that patient confidentiality is an absolute; having a nosey around medical records is indefensible and then telling someone else should be a criminal offence with jail time as the automatic punishment.

It’s not just about the OP and the harm to her, it’s about the undermining of a public service where it is vital the public have confidence in the confidentiality of their records. If this means that the NHS changes its contracts so that all members of staff are personally liable for any costs incurred from data breaches that have arisen from them having a browse of a person’s notes and then gossiping about those notes then so be it, because it’s fucking apparent to anyone with a functional brain cell that is wrong.

Go for everything you can OP, because it’s the only way public services learn.

What a revolting comment to make. Perhaps fair compensation for the OP might assist with therapy to help with the damage caused to her by the surgery employee’s unlawful acts?

It might. If her PND has been exacerbated the claim may include cost of treatment. Plus she can use the damages to do something nice like have a holiday which can assist in getting past such a horrible experience.

@peony90 see a firm of solicitors that specialise in data breach and psychiatric injury claims. They will likely do it on a CFA (where you don't pay them unless you win) as liability won't be in issue

Because those acting for the tax payers have a responsibility to act in accordance with the law. If the tax payers dont demand secure systems everyone suffers. It acts as a warning to others.

The GP surgery should have control mechanisms built in to ensure records are only accessed when a business need to do so. Ie booking an appointment. They should be doing spot checks on data accessed at other times. Conduct training

Sorry this happened OP.

She'll lose her job and rightly so. Whst a horrible and grossly unprofessional thing for her to do.

If it was about your appendix and an ingrown toenail, I think there's no cause for compensation but your fertility and mental health are so personal and deeply private.

I suspect you will be offered compensation when the investigation concludes and rightly so. They are probably checking all records to see if there are other instances too.

Fair play to the lady who told you - hopefully it stops this happening to others.

You wouldn’t get compensation for this, and nor should you. This is a deliberate and malicious act by one person, it’s not the NHS’s fault - there was no breach of systems or error made. You haven’t suffered any financial loss or medical harm. You should be outraged that this person looked at your information, and they should lose their job due to gross misconduct but what do you think you should be paid compensation for, exactly?

I previously experienced something similar involving raw therapy notes that were shared with my GP without my knowledge or consent. The notes contained false allegations and highly damaging comments about my husband - (I had no idea at the time these comments were in the notes)I eventually discovered they had been accessed after someone who knew a friend of mine mentioned the comments, and I was then able to see the notes myself on my NHS app.
I pursued every available complaints process - including PALS, the ICO and the Ombudsman, but ultimately got nowhere. It felt as though the organisations were protecting one another rather than properly addressing the issue.
There is now a flag on the record acknowledging that a data breach occurred, but the damaging notes themselves and my complaint letters all remain on my file/NHS app which is so invasive. I was told there was an investigation into the staff member involved, although I have never been informed of the outcome. I considered legal action not because I wanted compensation I wanted the notes removed or redacted.

This is a breach of patient confidentiality by a rogue colleague rather than a GDPR breach as such (unless the receptionist claims that she had never received any information governance training from her employer). It is still totally unacceptable and the recrptionist will likely lose her job.

The receptionist will be sacked. I don’t think compensation is appropriate.
You have had a tough time but how much do you think you should get ? Money won’t make you feel better.

The NHS is funded by tax payers, including me. Think about where the money comes from. If you seek compensation, everyone on Mumsnet will be paying your compensation. Why would we do that? It isnt my fault. Also, think about what the money you want could do for the NHS. It sounds like sadly you have used the NHS a lot - would you be happy to find out the treatment you receive is substandard because money that should have been spent on your care was spent on compensation for one member of staff's misdemeanor? I'm not belittling what has happened and I would absolutely be pushing for that person to be disciplined (and almost certainly fired). But I can't see how paying you cash helps you or the NHS.

There was a thread the other day saying how sometimes when a customer has received someone else's insurance documents (so a data beach), but nothing bad has happened from it, they've still had compensation. And this situation about the doctors receptionist sounds worse than that! I can understand more getting compensation for this

Get your facts right…. This is not the case.

Why do people always say that ? Do you really think the NHS will forgo giving someone life saving medical treatment to pay compensation ?! 🙄

@Castellio

Your remarks are completely devoid of sensitivity or kindness. It is impossible for others to understand the impact of a miscarriage and how privately some people
feel that they want to grieve this invisible loss. For an employee to betray the trust placed in them to deal with deeply personal information sensitively and confidentially is a gross breach of trust . I hope the employee loses their job and that OP is compensated. The organisation should have had sufficient checks in place and should have been sufficiently confident of the employee’s integrity; they didn’t and they weren’t . It’s their failing and it’s caused huge upset.

Twice my entire, sensitive and highly irrelevant medical history has been disclosed in the context of a routine investigation. Twice. All because someone was too lazy to apply a moment’s thought to what they were doing and why. It’s was hurtful and, the second time, infuriating.

Your responses are appalling.

Then this should be reported through the appropriate legal channels which would help more with ''pain and suffering'' than pound signs

I work for the nhs and pay outs by nhs trusts are often paid out for mental anguish, defamation of character (eg calling op a “physco”), and other things such as GDPR not necessarily monetary related.
I’d take a free hour at a solicitors but after the investigation is concluded and you have their outcome and then you can see if there is any mileage in a potential claim.
im sorry you’re going through this it’s disgusting this receptionist did this to you.

Breaching someone's medical privacy is one of the worst kinds of personal data misuse there is - this isn't a minor thing that the OP should just have to suck up.

Report this to the ICO immediately as it’s illegal.

https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

This person should be sacked and not be in a position to access other people’s records and potentially do this again. Data protection needs to be taken seriously.

Will compensation make you feel better - just curious as someone whose highly personal mental health issues were publicised to over 350 people recently. I don't know who they were & I was initially devastated & then decided I had to move along.
Money won't change what happened....

The circumstances were different but I brought a claim against a medical professional who revealed private medical information about me to a third party. From memory, my lawyer raised a claim on three points - misuse of personal info, breach of confidentiality and breach of the DPA. There is a legal precedent in the case of the DPA that you don’t need to prove a financial loss in order to receive compensation and the compensation can be for the distress the breach caused you. I had an excellent lawyer and the medical professional settled immediately for about 7k + my legal costs. All of went on therapy because of the issues that the breaches caused although I didn’t really do it for the money but because the behaviour was totally unacceptable.

Most doctors surgeries are private businesses & will most likely have a fund or insurance to cover this.