Aibu complain? Dd medical notes (poss triggering)

[padwalk]

I’ll try and cut a long story short, but I’m feeling really emotional over this so Im not sure if my judgement is clouded.

Dd (15) has applied for the army, but there was a mix up with her medical records and somebody else’s, and her medical fitness was failed. So to prepare for the appeal we’re doing, we needed to request all of dds medical notes from our GP. I was told because dd is over the age of 12, she had to request and sign for them herself and physically hand them over to her, they couldn’t even speak to me on the phone for confidentiality, fair enough I thought.

Dd has been off all day, really upset, then she completely broke down tonight and it turns out it’s because of something she saw in her records.
She had been reffered to camhs many years ago, because I asked them to look at her because of my own mental health issues and I was worried about the affect on her. She knows about this, I’ve always been as honest as I can about it. She went twice and they weren’t concerned enough to take it any further.
The referral letter was from my psychologist at the time (one who i horribly clashed with and wished I’d put in a complaint about at the time for a different reason) and there in black and white was a complete list of all my issues, from severe trauma in my own childhood, to being sectioned when I was pregnant with my second child and all about me being suicidal, including the psychologists own opinion on why I was that way. There was much more but I don’t want to derail the thread too much. I’m so angry that all of this was literally handed to my 15 year old to read, and she now knows that her mother tried to kill herself.

Is this even legal for them to do? Do I complain to the gp, the psychology service? Aibu to take it further, or we’re they completely in their rights to do this?

I didn’t think I’d be sitting tonight comforting my dd, who’s petrified about what she read.

@poloshot

Anytime. Glad to help you assimilate.

Contact the Information Commissioner's Office and speak to an adviser:
www.gov.uk/data-protection/make-a-complaint

The reason there's often a fee to release notes is because of the time and input needed to redact stuff like this. Which clearly hasn't happened.
Massive cock up.
Any fee they charged should be refunded for a start, and maybe DC's GP should talk to them to reassure them maybe. What a mess. :(

Thanks, leonynature 👍

Think it’s imprtant to remind some posters that the OP is usually a real person on the end of a post

Also complain to CCG.

@LaBelleSauvage
Are you padwalks GP or practice manager????
This practice isnt caring for its patients though, is it!! It’s got two fucked up women sat in shock/crying because of their very basic mistake. This terrible mistake ( but mistakes do happen! WTF.????) could have god only knows what consequences on the lives of this mum and her daughter.
Nobody (I don’t think )has suggested legal action. But by god, they need to launch an internal investigation as to how this has happened and they need to put in places procedures to ensure it never happens again . But frankly, all of these procedures should have been in place anyway. This ( requesting your medical records) will be a common request in a GP surgery and so redaction should be a given.
But they , in my opinion , still need reporting to the ICO. This is a huge huge mistake , and like sneaky gremlins said - raise hell.

You have every right to be upset, angry, and worried. This could have huge long lasting ramefications for your family and a crappy letter from the Practice manager saying ‘ sorry. We have given the staff extra training to ensure this won’t happen again ‘ just wouldn’t cut it for me. I wouldn’t be bothered about any financial gain but I would like to see them publically named and shamed and fined a hefty amount.

I don't think they can charge anymore after the GDPR regulations came in?

@yorkshireyummymummy no I'm not

I agree with @mintychoc1

I first stated that a complaint was the best way forward.

An increasingly litigious society is crippling our healthcare system and reducing the resources that are available to spend on patient care. We are all patients.

Often practices are well enough able to deal with complaints themselves.

If the practice addresses the issue then what good will come of fining them and making them go through an investigation?

Thank you everyone for replying.

I do understand the question of dd being emotionally ready for the army (although I definitely do prefer the way bbcessex put it!) like I say I was deliberately vague, but it would be many more years of education/uni before dd was actually serving in the forces. It’s a valid point questioning her emotional maturity but I think anyone would be shaken after reading what she has about me (again, vague to a point, but extremely distressing)

I think yorkshireyummymummy has actually expressed my feelings extremely well. I don’t want compensation or to go down any legal routes (we didn’t pay for the notes, and we got them extremely quickly too) But a simple ‘we’re sorry’ isn’t going to cut it here, I don’t think.

Possibly me being a bit dense here, but what are the ICO and CCG standing for? Feeling out of my depth here.

I think as pp suggested, I will discuss with my own psychologist too and get her take on things.

ICO - information commissioner's office. They deal with data management eg confidentiality etc. They'll be able to advise. There is a v good website.

CCG - Clinical Commissioning Group. What was the old Primary Care Trusts (sort of). They commission (buy) primary medical services including GP services. They'll have a GP on their board and will take this v seriously.

Thank you sparkingfizzing is this the same all over Britain?

ICO is Britain I believe.
CCGs are just in England here: www.england.nhs.uk/ccg-directory/

Scotland have local health boards instead of CCGs. Here: www.mygov.scot/nhs-complaints/

Wales look like they have health boards too. Here www.wales.nhs.uk/ourservices/contactus/nhscomplaints

Please try not to let one (big) mistake affect the work you are going with your therapist now. It sounds like your current one is helping.

also OP ....bloody hats off to you. Immense strength going through all that trauma to now having a teenage daughter who opens up to you with her worries, and who is together enough to have aspirations for her future.

Bloody brilliant. Kudos 👏👏👏👏❤️

Thanks sparkingfizzing that’s so informative, one of the other 2 you linked will probably help more, I’m very grateful to you for that, and you’re right, I’ve got to be careful not to let it affect my current therapy. That will be tough but I think she knows me enough by now to understand how it will make me feel.

bbcessex thank you, you’ve no idea how that’s made me feel

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Actually, I’m not sure it’s the surgery that is wrong.
You asked for the CAMHS referral based on your history.
That referral was made with a letter in your child’s medical records (as is required by legislation).
Your daughter requested copies of her records which contained information you’d rather she hadn’t seen. That information was provided by you to secure a referral, so you gave it voluntarily for inclusion in her records. Why would you now be angry it was in those records when you asked for it to be there in the first place? What would you have them do, falsify records?
They provided a complete and accurate copy of your daughters medical records as requested. No breach of anything.

The more difficult issue is that a referral on grounds of mental health concerns may impact negatively on her career choice.

Actually, I’m not sure it’s the surgery that is wrong

The surgery is completely and utterly wrong and in breach of data privacy.

HTH. HAND.

Agree with others, complain this should not have happened.

On the other stuff, please don’t worry too much, talk to your DD, you’ll be able to alleviate the upset just by saying how much you’ve struggled but that you have got through, that life can be hard but also amazing and you bought up a lovely daughter. You can help her with her application, and show her the way is forward. If she sees you being okay she will feel less anxious too.

YANBU this is a major data protection fail, with consequences for both of you. I did some gongling -

Scottish information commissioner is here - www.itspublicknowledge.info/home/ScottishInformationCommissioner.aspx

Welsh here - ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/who-we-are/wales-office/

Do contact the relevant one - I've talked to them before and they're really helpful, I think they can help you with how to make a complaint. This should definitely not have happened, I'd be livid. I'm really sorry it's happened.

I didn’t ask for any of my information to be passed forward or shared with any other person.
Whilst in with my own psychology appointment, many years ago, I mentioned that I was worried about the affect of my mental health on my daughters well being, and was it possible there was someone dd could speak to about her own feelings. Psychologist said she could refer my dd.
She never said she would be putting anything in the referral letter at all.
Even if I did know, there is no reason why my full history should be so easily accessible to a child

CherryPavlova

What a load of shit.

OP says her parental protection caused her to ask for her then (11?) year old to be referred to CAMHS for an assessment as she herself was paranoid about any negative impact. CAMHS decided no need.

You consider this to be significant enough to hinder DDs career options.

FFS... I despair of some people....

How awful op. My first instinct would be to tell your dp that they have messed up again and they aren’t your accurate records and they must have mixed you up with someone else (while also complaining about your medical information being shared without your consent).

I don't have anything to add to the excellent advice you've received already about how best to take your complaint forward. I just wanted to say that I'm incredibly angry on your behalf and I hope you get a satisfying resolution. It sounds like you've been and continue to be a wonderful advocate for your daughter.