Gross invasion of personal privacy by neighbour

[gldd]

Hi everyone, I wondered if I could ask the thoughts of the Mumsnet community on a sensitive issue regarding personal / medical privacy. Around 1 year ago my wife and I suffered through a positive NIPT and then scan confirming severe chromosomal abnormalities 12 weeks into our pregnancy, followed by an extremely upsetting medical termination. We are still dealing with this loss and its associated sadness with the help of a professional counsellor. My wife is a private person and has chosen to share this information only with a counsellor, family, and close friends.

Last week during baby loss awareness week we received through our letterbox a handwritten note from one of our next-door neighbours commiserating my wife on her loss and explaining in some detail our neighbour’s past fertility problems (she now has two small children). This neighbour, who is not a friend (we only very occasionally see her and say hello) works part-time as a receptionist at our local surgery. Earlier this year, for a number of reasons including the fact that our neighbour may view our confidential medical records, my wife decided to move to another nearby surgery. This neighbour had clearly accessed my wife’s (or my?) medical records, presumably has shared the information with her partner and mother (with whom she lives for now), and then decided to write my wife the message.

My first reaction was shock that a stranger could access and share what I would consider to be the most intimate and private medical information. Surely this is in breach of surgery rules, medical confidentiality, or even the law, especially given GDPR? A friend we have shared this with is of the opinion that it constitutes a sackable offence. At the time, my wife was also shocked (and upset) but perhaps more forgiving and so wrote a brief note thanking her for her concern and thoughts. Obviously, it would be very difficult to be on bad terms with our immediate neighbour. I can imagine them taking offense quite easily. In recent days and thinking about it more my wife has been very upset at the breach of privacy, at the reminder of our upsetting experience, her uninvited unburdening, at the thought that our near-neighbour nosed through our records without our permission, and at the fact that although the note was thoughtful in a way, was actually far more about our neighbour and about her difficulties. Perhaps it was a way for her to process her own experiences?

We’re wondering what next steps to take and would be interested in thoughts. Has anyone had a similar experience? Can anyone advise on the legal position here? My wife and I have discussed it at length and my wife feels that it would be too upsetting to bring it up herself. Neither of us would want our neighbour to lose her job, however surely I should bring this up with the practice to ensure that safeguarding procedures are in place, that medical information is confidential and kept confidential, and that this would not happen again? I have decided to leave the practise myself. I’m also thinking of raising it with the neighbour, though that will be a difficult conversation. Should we leave it and put her mistake down to the foolishness of youth? I’d be interested in everyone else’s thoughts.

Thankyou

To all the posters who think this isn't a big deal - where is your line?

What if she contacted the mother of a teenager who had an abortion "because I feel so sorry for her...is there anything I can do to make her feel better?"

Or the partner of a patient who had a DV injury "because I care and someone's got to tell you that this isn't on"

Or the daughter of a mother who's just been diagnosed with cancer "because you're both going to need support, so if you need anything please come and ask" (only the daughter didin't know about the diagnosis)

There is a blanket ban on anyone working in the medical field breaking ANY patient's confidentiality. Doesn't matter whether it's about a bit of acne or a suicide attempt.

So stop making excuses for this woman. She did something appalling, and if she doesn't recognise that, then she's likely doing it often and it needs to be stopped.

I would make an appointment to see the practice manager, take the letter with you but explain to manager about you living next door and don’t want to create tension and bad feelings and that you don’t particularly want her sacked
The practice manager will then have to figure out a way for this neighbour to receive extra training re confidentially, be reprimanded and the manager will have to make sure that you and your wife do not suffer any back lash.
How exactly they will do this I’ve no idea but it is for the manager to worry about and not yourselves

She must have paid zero attention during her data security training. This is a major GDPR breach.

Interesting topic for a first post.

I’m very shocked. It’s a sackable offence and she should lose her job. It’s a very creepy, manipulative, intrusive thing to have done, a form of bullying even. It was not kind or well meant at all. The neighbour is putting her own emotional and psychological problems onto someone else.

Now stop that Horehound

Sackable very serious offence. Definitely speak to Practice Manager about her letter

I can see she's wrestled with writing this, time it took to write and the fact she's said she saw letters, shes not admitted looking at your records so thinks thats ok glancing at paperwork .This does, in a thoughtless way, come across as she's trying to relate and offer help. But it's broke rules, I've worked in similar for 12 years, data protection was annually taught to use. I've read things no one should read or see, but you never, ever, ever talk about it. Not even to family.

@Denny53

You may want to read my post. Once nhs procedures kick in they sack people.
No slapped wrists. No leeway for discretion in my health board. It may vary in other areas but that may not be a risk the OP wants to take.

If a slapped wrist and extra gdpr training was available for such things the person I referred to would still be in the job she had for over a decade with a flawless record prior to the one offence.

She may have done it from goodness of her heart, but I don't think I can forgive her for doing this if that happened to me. Cause to lose trust in the clinic.

There will be an audit trail on who has accessed records and when.

And to say that breach of confidentiality will result in dismissal. None of this softm’get further training in confidentiality ‘

Yes deliberately looking at a medical record without need to is a gross breach of GDPR. However it’s possible that your next door neighbour became aware by legitamate means or from other signs ( such as noticing a bump, overhearing sympathetic comments, or simply through a thin party wall) and put two and two together.

And yet you see no problem with sharing your wifes most personal medical information with us.

@notangelinajolie

And yet you see no problem with sharing your wifes most personal medical information with us.

Anonymously.

None of us has a clue who the OP is in real life, or who his wife is. That's an entirely different situation from a next door neighbour knowing their business by breaking medical confidentiality.

Oh OP. I'm so sorry.

Is it possible that you or your wife liked something on social media during BLAW which may have triggered this?

If not and you're certain she accessed the records then you need to go to the Practice Manager asap. That's breach of data protection, patient confidentiality, likely breach of her contract of employment and professional misconduct. If it's true, it's a very serious matter indeed.

I had 3 MCs and was open about them, but if I chose to be private and someone did that to me, I'd be distraught. I'd think you need to do something before she does a similar thing again. Take care

Definite breach of GDPR. Person should not have been viewing unless during course of their employment. Sounds like it was not during course (i.e. they were not using the records to type up a genuinely required letter/report etc) and if they have then discussed with partner this is extremely serious.

I'd report in writing to practice manager. They will likely lose their job.

She wrote in her note '... since I worked at xxx surgery I had to open and file letters / documents of yours...'.

That’s so strange.

It is a breach of GDPR. It is up to you if you would like to take this further with the practice. It is possible the neighbour may not be entirely still affected by her past losses and somehow felt the need to offer her support to your wife. However to not get your neighbour in trouble, perhaps writing anonymous feedback to the surgery and not providing any names?

I would report her. She was wrong 100%.

This is awful and very, very gross misconduct. It's a very unpleasant thought that people with so little respect for others privacy work in a medical setting.
Normally I'd say report immediately, but because it's your neighbour it might come back to bite you in the arse......You can always report this at a later moment, in your shoes I'd consider for a few days more what I would want to do with this eventually. And so sorry for your loss

I would make a copy of the letter, and include in with your letter of complaint, along with her name & address.

On reflecting about this, I think it’s sufficiently egregious I would feel I just couldn’t let it go. So I would write to the practise manager with a copy of the note and complain but explain that you are neighbours and fear reprisal and so please could they do an audit of their practise and see if she has broken other GDPR rules because you would prefer it was not identifiable. Now she might not be so silly as be make it traceable on the computer system, but given she seemed to not understand privacy at all she may well have broken GDPR by looking people up on computer systems that she had reason to fire hire alone.

OP if you want it reported, can you perhaps let one of your friends or relatives report this to the practice. They heard from you about the letter, were shocked that your neighbour did this and though you 'did not want to report it, they thought it was neccesairy because it is unacceptable what has happened'.

It's still reported then and you can just say you only shared her gesture with some close to you.