Can someone please explain NHS confidentiality rules to me

[IloveJudgeJudy]

I'm frustrated. I'm off work today and have just received a call from the NHS for DD. They wouldn't even leave a phone number so that DD can call back. I asked for a number so that DD can give them permission to talk to me in future. They wouldn't do that.

I know that DD has been waiting for contact from the NHS for a long time and will be irritated that she's missed the call with no way of returning it. Also, she's just started a new job so can't receive calls. If I tell her they've called and she's missed them it could cause her to spiral down again.

Can anyone explain to me why they won't leave a number? They said they'll write a letter but ime that will take ages .

Some services have a policy not to leave derails, e.g HIV services, sexual assault services, some mental health clinics etc. This is to protect the patients confidentiality as you could easily Google the number and find out what service she is receiving, that she may not want you to know about.

They probably Won't Leave a number in case she didn't want you to know she was in contact with that nhs service. If they left a number you could ring it back or google it.

Frustrating, but they have no idea who you are and wont take the risk of you phoning back and pretending to be her.

Maybe your DD could contact whoever referred her and ask them to amend the referral giving her mobile phone number rather than a land line number

There must be a central switchboad which can direct her to the right dept.

could you do 1471 to see the number and maybe your dd can give them her mobile number for future calls. I don't think they take a verbal agreement for someone else to take calls, they need to speak to the patient or have something in writing, does she know who called, does she have any referral letters with a phone number on.

Your daughter might be fine with you being informed about her medical care like this, but other patients may not want their parents to know or have access to such confidential information. A blanket patient confidentiality rule protects the majority.

She probably has an idea of what service/hospital/department is trying to get in touch, it’s not going to be impossible for her to find out.

Why would this cause her to spiral? Has she got her own phone? If so, to prevent this from happening again just switch her contact number to from the landline to her actual mobile so if they miss her, they can just leave a voicemail. She can call back on her break.

There’s no need for calls to go through you via the landline, especially if she’s going to be at work during standard working hours and not at home.

If they ring back then give them her mobile number, it's frustrating but she is the patient.

I work in forensic mental health. If we leave a message we just say the name of the trust and give the main switchboard number. We do not reveal which service we work for as many people dont want to share that they are under a forensic service. Giving a number means you can google it and then work our what service is calling.

She needs to write to them giving consent to them leaving contact details.

What do you mean by call 'from the NHS' like the hospital, GP surgery? The NHS can't have just called.
But yes, it is frustrating, but also they need to comply with information governance.
Hopefully they will be in touch with her soon.

In general terms NHS confidentiality means that you mustn't divulge any information about a patient to a third party unless you have express permission or in certain very specific situations (eg. safeguarding etc)

If they had given you appointments details, name of clinic, doctors name or even a phone number you could potentially use that information to identify medical details about your DD (which she may not want you to know)

As PPs have said, lots of people wouldn’t want others in their household to know that they are seeing the HIV / mental health / termination clinic and unless the patient had expressly given permission for this to be shared it’s understandable why they respect confidentiality and err on the side of caution when disclosing this info.
Your DD will presumably know which team it likely is and can google their number if it isn’t on any of her letters.

Thank you all for your replies. Th person on the phone just said NHS. That's all. They wouldn't leave any number.