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?

I'm a midwife. If I call a patient and she doesn't pick up, I'm not allowed to leave a voicemail if someone has a generic "The person you have called is not available" type message; only if they state their name. So I usually send her a message through the app asking her to call me. If she doesn't have the app, I call whatever number is listed as an alternate number - sometimes it's her work phone, but it's usually her partner's or her mum's number. If that person answers I say "Hi, I'm calling from X hospital (not mention I was a midwife), I'm trying to get hold of so and so." and when they say "Oh yes, that's my wife." I say "Great. Can you ask her to call me back on 071234....."
No clinician in their right mind gives out patient information over the phone to a relative. I would be very surprised if the GP was going to say anything of consequence to your DH. It takes a huge amount of time trying to get people to answer their phones / call you back, so when an alternate number is listed we do use it!
Edit: typo

Then maybe get facts before jumping on social media to bash them?

Euww, that is vomit -inducing! There is no way to make smears "cute"!

Do you actually know why they rang him?
Was it to check your number is still valid?
Are you assuming?

When my GP saved my life after an early diagnosis of sepsis after which I was rushed to hospital, I can assure you he was a God to me & always will be. It's a disease very easily missed & my initial symptoms were mild. Thankfully it was caught in time despite my legs being blue tartan by the time I reached the hospital. I've no after effects & returned to good health after being admitted for 3 days. I will be forever grateful to the whole team who treated me.

Exactly this. We can speak to another contact to ask the patient to make contact on a specific number, but we can't say the department or the condition.

If your DH is down as NOK then yes they absolutely can call him ...

NO it doesn't mean they will breach confidentiality.

As a nurse we can contact NOK and speak to them without breaching confidentiality.

If you don't like it don't him down as NOK 🙄

It's not a different situation. You are either happy to include your spouse in your health issues or your not. This includes calling the spouse to ask to speak with you if they cant get hold of you (phone not charged etc) to remind you of something simple like a smear. Those who are happy with this should make sure its recorded on notes. It may save your life.

@VelvetFuzzy thank you. I know, right? It literally looked like a display in a nursery school.

A cartoon drawing of someone who looks five years old weilding hair straighteners and a hairdryer? Like are those the equipment they want people to think they use in a smear test?

That doctors office is being closed down.

If that's what they wanted fine

Which is why I said she should talk to them

Exactly this. Your surgery will likely be doing a blitz on QoF at the moment. Points are acquired for blood pressure checks, finding out whether someone is (still) a smoker, smear tests, diabetic reviews, asthma reviews, Chronic disease reviews…..etc etc. Making sure these are done (or properly recorded as declined) is a huge part of a practice’s income and survival, as well as for patient safety and wellbeing.

A member of staff will be working down one dedicated list and their colleague might be working their way down another.

It is probably purely co-incidental that you’ve both been contacted on the same day.

Obviously I care a great deal about many of my patients, especially the ones I like. A small handful I actively dislike because they’re rude, offensive, racist, aggressive, abusive etc. I still treat them well but I don’t like them. The vast majority I want to do my best for them, I care about their symptoms, I want to make diagnoses and treat them effectively. It’s my job and I want to do it well. But if there are patients who don’t want their smear tests then that really doesn’t keep me awake at night. Posters on MN talk as if GPs are relentlessly hounding them to have their tests because the weird twisted GPs are obsessed with forcing unwanted screening on them, for mysterious and negative reasons. I was trying to make the point that we really don’t mind if people have their screening tests or not. It’s just a job.
And yes, general practice isn’t what it used to be when I started nearly 30 years ago. We used to be valued and respected, now we’re slagged off on here and in the press. It’s definitely taken the shine off it for me.

you said “they shouldn’t have done that”, without knowing what they actually did.

@CrowleyKitten thank you. Yeah, totally true. I came on my period really heavily during a smear once. That was fun. No pink balloons required?! 🤣

@mumblesparty I don't know why there has been this turn against GPs from certain groups of people. It's possibly a lot to do with demand & a general lack of GPs & resources available to them. This along with post covid difficulty in getting face to face appointments & the pressure Doctors are under compared to in the past where GPs in smaller communities knew their patients & treated the whole family.

I feel underneath all this patients do understand the pressures the health service has faced recently & a lot of the attitudes stem from fear. Nobody would say the job of a GP is easy and there are bound to be days when it feels like a thankless task. The fact is where would we be without them. When you have a close relative in the profession it gives you an insight into their life. They are quite simply unsung heroes...

I was contacted by my husbands hospital to make sure I knew he was having a vasectomy?? I don't think it's about controlling women

If they had spoken to him about your smear test then that would have been a GDPR breach and you could have reported them. However, they didn't speak to him and may well have just asked if he could pass a message on to contact them. This wouldn't be breaching confidentiality if none of the reasons for the call were disclosed although I do think its a bit OTT for a smear test appointment.

I know it's not the point of the thread but why delay a smear test?

The doctors surgery could be telephoning your husband just say they are trying to get hold of you and, could he pass on the message. I do not think for one minute they would divulge any medical information of yours to him....I wouldn't worry about something that never happened.

1. His call may have been about something else.
2. They might have just said could you let your OH know we're trying to contact her for a routine matter.

Either way it's not sharing info....of course if he had answered and they said what it was about that would be wrong.

It's obvious OP & others of this mindset do not wish to share their medical information etc with their spouse & that should be respected. Thankfully there is an option to include your spouse in everything, including receiving messages & discussing health issues with the GP. This means if there are issues couples can support each other in full knowledge of the circumstances.

So @MyAquaCrow what did the surgery say when you called them back ?

Because they need to catch the attention of women. How many do you think will stop to read a board full of information?

just go

If your husband's number is not down as a point of contact I'd raise a complaint as is a breach of data. My husband's is but I had to give consent because sometimes my condition affects my speech and he has to communicate for me. But I wouldn't be happy if they just rang another family member without my consent. I know they did it once but that was an emergency I'd been on the phone and had gone into a seizure. They'd been aware my husband was out so they rang my 11 year old sons phone as they knew he was in the home with me. In his room. They'd obtained the number form a receptionist whose child goes to school with mine. I understand why they did that but they wouldn't just ring him to leave a message about smears. Etc.