My work and health info was sent to the wrong person nhs

[EachandEveryone]

How wrong is this? Should I be upset? Since going through treatment for cancer and still having it maybe I’m just not getting excited by it. My friends are more upset and think I should persue it. My occupational health referral was sent to another member of staff at the other side of the country and she got in touch with me very upset that she had read my file. It happened because whoever send my referral to OH never bothered to look up my nhs email address properly and wrote this woman’s instead as we have the same name. An incident report has been filed but no one from work has approached me about it. We get this drummed into us from the minute we start nursing school and if I’d have done it they would’ve come down on me like a tonne of bricks.

Report to information commissioner, you are entitled to apology and compensation.

The person that did it apologised straight away and she is a close colleague I would hate for her to get sacked or anything.

I got sent someone else’s health records by my GP and when I spoke to them they were incredibly laid back about it and didn’t seem bothered.
They said they would write to me and explain but didn’t so I tried to raise it with information commissioner to ensure it had been reported.
Unfortunately the IC were rude and unhelpful; basically I’m not allowed to know as it wasn’t my records sent out.

I think you have to decide what you want to happen as a result of this. No one can tell you what or how you should feel about it, what you feel is what you feel. If you are happy with the apology then leave it, if you feel much more needs to be done then follow it up.

she got in touch with me very upset that she had read my file.

But the point but what on earth was she thinking? I've received things clearly not for me and resisted the temptation.

Why did she read your file? She clearly knew it wasn't for her?

If it was a friend who had done this by accident, I wouldn't take it further. If it was someone I didn't know who had done it then I would take it further.

Odd that she read the file. Unless she has the same name and was expecting to receive a health report, she must have known immediately that it wasn't for her. I would make sure that those responsible know what happened.

I’ve received someone else’s supervision notes (we are sent them to read before they are uploaded) but as soon as I saw the name I realised that it had been sent in error and let both the sender and the intended recipient know that it had been sent to me and that I had not looked.

Why did the recipient read it?

I think you need to raise it OP. Another point - how far did she get into reading your file? It sounds like she read a considerable portion of not the whole thing?

If so then that needs raising as well, she should have realised pretty quick it was not meant for her!

The official response and action should be the same regardless of how OP or anyone in the situation feels about it. )I realise in reality the action taken often depends on how much noise is made)

When I worked in mental health a patients file was accidentally faxed to a random person's home Fax machine. It contained a huge amount of confidential info (think childhood experiences, criminal history) the person receiving it read the entire thing then phoned up in tears because they had received it and learnt such personal info about a total stranger - people are so nosy, I don't understand why she read it when it was clearly faxed to her by accident.

To be fair to the person who read the file, if something official was sent to me with my name on it, I'd start reading while wondering what on Earth was going on. Obviously I'd stop once I realised it was someone else's file but I don't think I would have realised immediately.

Has your colleague who made the mistake mentioned any sort of disciplinary, investigation or reporting?

If it were me, I wouldn't be too worried but my medical records are brief and don't contain anything I would worry about other people seeing. I'm sure my attitude would be very different if there were upsetting or very personal details.

I think if no harm was done and the person apologised I would move on. It's really bad and against everything that's taught but this person will get in trouble for it. That's probably the only outcome from complaining. If it was me that would stress me out.

It probably wouldn't have been reportable to the information commissioner in any case... not all data breaches are, and the threshold for reporting is higher than you might expect it to be. There should still be an internal investigation and review of processes though.

OP, unfortunately this kind of accidental breach does happen quite often. It doesn't sound like there is a significant risk to you as a result of the breach, even though it's obviously upsetting to have your confidential information shared like this. I presume that the incorrect recipient has now double deleted the report - if not, they should be asked to do so and to confirm when they have done this. Has there been an investigation and has your employer looked at how such breaches can be avoided in future?

The OP is certainly entitled to an apology. I very much doubt that she would be entitled to compensation unless she could demonstrate that the breach had resulted in some sort of loss or damage.

They have the same name

Thats exactly what happened we have the same name but her email address is the one my colleague put on the form. So she got the pin number put it in and it was mydetails and yes she was off sick as well! Im lucky she was honest.

Everything on their dob national insurance number etc it was a file as such it was a referral for me to see if I can go back to work. Which is why I don’t want to rock the boat. Ultimately I want to retire and return on the same contract. It was a manager and a repot was filled in seen By the other manager although it was sent to the department head so it’s out of my hands but I doubt anymore would come of it.