To think my medical notes are confidential

[jessicathecat]

I was recently in hospital and dp picked up my medical notes and started casually leafing through them

He got all huffy when i asked him to stop! Was i being unreasonable?

NotAgainYoda

I offered a view point - seems it didn't appease your eyes? End of.

The OP's question was whether "medical notes" should be confidential. Yes they should but why on earth should bed notes be so? No they shouldn't is my answer.

No, it's fine. I like to know when a debate has ended

Why are people on the thread saying that even you shouldn't look at your own medical notes. Of course you should!! I have requested mine on a few occasions, and if I was in the company of a health practitioner where they were available I would happily look through them

These are BED NOTES, blimey!

At our trust we have nursing notes which are kept at the end of the bed. Then the buff notes which are kept in a cupboard. Due to recent scandals in many a trust over the years , the nursing notes are kept there for family to read them if needed/wanted. It is up to the patient to say no , if you didn’t want your husband to read them.
It isn’t just about privacy and information governance, but trust. And if you can’t trust your partner?

On a side note , we also have patient diaries. We fill them in and encourage the families too as well. I work icu so maybe that makes the difference.

Of course bed notes should be confidential. It's up to the patient if they want to share them or not.

It doesn't matter that everyone's different. The point is that medical notes are confidential and need to be treated as such.

It's utterly irrelevant that some people wouldn't mind others having a nosy, the point is that they have no right to do so without the patient's permission.

Some people don't mind partners or others reading their diaries, but there's still no automatic right to do it.

This thread isn't about the generality though. It's about her DP and what he'd do with the information he got. It's about the fact he'd pick them up in the first place without asking and that she feels he'd have some agenda to that.

Also, if the problem OP is worried about is that the partner will jump down her neck about her weight, he's obviously enough of a knob not to deserve this right.

These things need to be seen quickly, hence being called bed notes. I cannot understand what others are on about, very bizarre indeed.

drinks

That's informative

To me it seems like common courtesy that he would ask you before looking, even if they are 'just bed notes'. I'd be perfectly happy for my DH to look at any of my medical notes IF he asked me first. I'd be mighty pissed off if he just helped himself ...

OOOh, now we have 'bizarre!' Anymore strong adjectives anyone wants to use to describe people who don't behave like they think they should???

'Strange,' 'bizarre,' 'weird!!!' Any fucking thing else?!!!

FFS! I think it's strange and bizarre and weird that you don't understand not everyone is the same as you!

Anyone wanna bleat about how I sound 'angry now? yawn.......

@NotYoda

How many more times do you need to post 'BLIMEY' in response to my posts?! How desperate you must be for me to see your posts to me!

Every time I have been in hospital (3 times in the last 18 months) someone else’s notes have been put and left on my table instead of my own.

Worryingly this has been in two different hospitals - so I dare not think how many people have read others notes.

The thing with weight is that it's very personal, and (for whatever reason) often deeply linked to our self worth.

I wouldn't mind DH knowing about previous illness or issues, but my weight I consider to be my business, unlike illness, only I can control it (and sometimes I don't, very well).

It'd be compounded if DH was a busybody (luckily he's too chilled out for that).

YANBU.

The question was misleading.
Found out subsequently that she meant the notes at the end of her bed, not her "medical records".
I feel for the OP now but bednotes in a hospital are imperative to the patient that is being cared for.
They are not their "medical records".

Blimey!

You got me. I fancy you sun. It's the liberal use of exclamations points and the sexy CAPITAL letters. Phoar

I love Blimey too

I might throw a Cripes! out there if you carry on

"spontaneous abortion" as in the medical field that is the correct name for a miscarriage. I know it sounds awful but it may have been the case

"Termination at 40+1" was how it appeared. There was 3 mins between that and passing away. I find it easier to refer to the situation as stillborn, which is why I was angry at how it was recorded.

The hospital was utterly shit though as when DH arrived to take.me home, junior Midwife asked him where the car seat was else "baby won't be able go in the car without one"

I still feel bad I lost my shit with her!

Who knew medical notes could cause such a bun fight?

YANBU not to want your DP to know your weight OP. My weight is between me & the scales, and any medical practitioner on a need-to-know basis

Well, medical notes are subject to laws around confidentiality, so it isn’t about what the individual patient deems appropriate, there are hard and fast rules. Not just about your husband but about which medical professionals read them, you have to have a reason to access the notes (Caldicott). You can’t just look at them because you’re nosy, or the patient’s partner.

Nursing notes get filed in main medical notes and contain private information that you might not want to share (colour, texture and regularity of stools, anyone?), so you could argue that they should be locked away as confidential legal documents. In bed end folders they are convenient but impossible to police who is looking at them. You can pull the people you see aside and remind them that the documents are private and intended for staff use but there will be people you miss who are leafing through. Just because of the nature of staff to patient ratios and visiting times, pulled curtains etc.

Also patients in the community have their version of ‘bed notes’ at home, so there is nobody to stop them sharing those.

Do you not already think he's realised you aren't eight and a half stone having actually seen you himself?

WOW

Clearly there are opposing views on this, so it is really up to the patient. But surely the main thing is that you ask? May I read your notes and accept the answer whatever it may be.
Obviously a very sick relative who cannot communicate their needs is a case where looking may be necessary but it's not possible to get permission.

I've been in hospital - gone to the loo and come back to find someone else's visitor (ie a total stranger) reading my notes. I think you have to rely on people having enough manners to understand that they are not automatically entitled to do whatever they like regarding someone else's personal information.