GP surgery rang my husband after I ignored their call

[MyAquaCrow]

First of all I am new here so please bear with me. I am overdue a smear, and my GP surgery tried to call me twice today to book it. Both times I was unable to pick up the phone, so after the second missed call they then dialled my husband's mobile phone. He could not pick up as he was under the kitchen sink at the time, but the fact that they called him has really angered me. He is listed as my NOK, but his number is not down as a contact number for me. Is this right?

they cant do right,
you assume they want to get hold of you,
he is your next of kin
remove his name as your next of kin if this missed call affects you so much!

A surgery ringing you twice and then your partner, I'd be delighted! 🤣 It is impossible to get an appointment to see the GP in our surgery. Calls begin at half 8 and appointments are gone at 8:31 because people are queuing outside the surgery at 8am to try and secure a phone call with the GP. If you miss the call, that's it, you have to go and queue outside the surgery again the next morning and see if the receptionist will give you a phone call with the GP which you don't know what time so you've to carry your phone everywhere with the ring tone up high and anxiety up to 100 incase you miss it. I know I've vered slightly off topic but I genuinely would be delighted at a Dr chasing me up. Unheard of in NI. A routine test isn't really something that needs to be confidential so I'm not sure if it is unreasonable or not.

His number will be on your records as another contact and it probably won't be clear it's not you. (NHS software is not always user friendly for putting in data like this)

But we used to leave very vague messages like " Mrs x please contact the surgery on xxx xxxx. But you then have to make sure you put a message in the records saying why you'd phoned. We were also told we couldn't leave a message for a particular person on a land line voicemail due to confidentiality...this was a talk we had from our data controllers. Really interesting talk and we used to work through scenarios to see if we were breaching gdpr.

I was ran several years ago by the GPs surgery and asked to confirm my husband hadn’t changed his contact number.

GPs can't do right for wrong. Why didn't you call back after the first voicemail? GP surgeries have not got time to be calling one person all day until they can be bothered to answer.

This wouldn’t bother me at all. Take him off the list if it bothers you

just because they've called you about something doesn't mean they'd then dial your husband about it. you're making assumptions with no proof.

Until he's called them back to find out why they phoned him, hold your horses. if it Is what you think, then by all means complain.

Would a GP call a woman to tell her to send her husband in for a prostate check. Absolutely not.
What next, calling a patient's father to make sure his adult daughter has a mammogram?
This is ridiculous. We don't have male guardians in this country.

I once had a GP practice phone me up because they wanted the au-pair to make an appointment for a smear. She hadn't been calling them back. They wanted me to tell her how important it was.

Now that was outrageous imo. They got quite arsy when I said no way - they could tell her how important it was.

Everyone will have their own view on this. Personally not only would I want my GP to feel free to discuss everything involving my health with my DH (as long as nothing was hidden from me) I would be annoyed if he couldn't get hold of me & he didn't contact him. We are a team. His health issues are my issues. My health issues are his issues if & when they occur. In fact this thread has reminded me to make sure this permission is on both our records.

I’ve took a phone call from the doctor about my DH. It was to do with his appointment.

Did they leave a voicemail on his phone at all? What did they actually say

because if he is due a medicine review couldn’t they be just going through a list

It may just be a mistake, I realised that I was down as a second contact on my adult son's record when I started getting text messages that were for him.

If not, I'd be quoting GDPR and special Category data at them.

So, they didn't call your husband about your smear test? They just might have done?!

Don’t be ridiculous. Unless the surgery has express permission to discuss one partners’ medical records with the other, they won’t. The likelihood is that both were down as contact numbers, especially if they are both registered at the same surgery. When OP realised the surgery had tried to contact her, she should have rung back to find out what they wanted. If her DH had answered they probably would only have asked to speak to OP if they think it’s an alternative contact number for her. This is why I get so angry when our surgery ignores express instructions to only contact on our landline. My mobile is only used for certain things - it’s not glued to my person like so many others, and neither is my DH’s.

Ther is no evidence that is what the GP's surgery were trying to do. They could have been calling the husband for some other reason unrelatedto her.. They could have been trying to verify her contact details.

You don't actually know if they were calling him about your smear if he didn't pick up though.

But she has no idea whether they rang her husband about her smear test. All she knows is they rang her husband. Full stop.

I've been told - many times - that our trust (GP, hospitals) can't leave voicemail messages as they can't be sure who will hear them.

If there is one thing guaranteed to destroy any confidence in patient confidentiality it's inconsistent practices across healthcare.

technically, they aren't even meant to confirm or deny whether you are registered with them or not, unless you've specified.
I'm anxious about phonecalls sometimes, and when I ask him to call on my behalf, they ask him "is your wife there" and then confirm with me that I'm happy for him to book an appointment on my behalf, and then I give the phone back. and they know us quite well, because he needs a monthly blood test because one of his medications can affect his white blood cell count.

calling him about it is definitely not right, unless you've pre agreed that.

Twice on the same day then calling next of kin seems unreasonable to me, as if you are unavailable during the day, good chance later in the day you could be.

Twice each on a different day perhaps OK. I agree about inconsistency in general about medical matters and contact.

perhaps they have a slot they are trying to fill, that would make sense,
your need the slot, they have a slot

My consultant rang my husband for a phone appointment once because he’s listed as my NOK and he read the wrong line on the electronic system when dialling the number. It’s listed one above the other so would very easily look like a second contact number.

I mean, okay, sure, tiny mistake. But my husband knows I have cancer 😂 so while a little alarmed to get a call from my oncologist, it wasn’t like a serious data breach and he wasn’t trying to talk ‘man to man’ about me. He just thought he was calling me, but wasn’t. He is the loveliest man (my consultant, my Dh too) and was so apologetic when he finally got me on the right number. In my case, no big deal, though I can see how it could be a worrying error in some situations.

It’s a Monday though. My guess is it’s admin catch up day, trying to ring around to book all the smear tests and the med reviews and the heart health checks while they have an extra pair of hands on deck.

I suppose it's better than a photo of the way I spray paint the surgery every time 😉(I have an enlarged ectropian, and I bleed BADLY when they mess with my cervix)
but yes, it's ridiculous how we are often treated like children, especially over such an adult thing.

I'd be furious too. Your health is private and nothing to do with your husband! I'm not usually a person who complains, but I think a complaint to the surgery is justified in these circumstances.