To think this is much more serious than they seem to think it is?

[OnceWasBadEnough]

A few months ago I went for a job and had to give permission for my medical records to be seen as part of the process. I gave permission and then was told I hadn’t got the job because of something they had found on my records. I was shocked and went to my GP to ask to see my records and found out my sister’s history has been put on my record by accident! I found out info about my sister that she may not have wanted me to know (I explained to family and she then told me this applied to her). Before this she had been for an appointment and they’d called out my name instead of hers! It was like they had completely mixed us up. We made a complaint and they seemed not to be bothered really, asking ‘what do you want us to do? We’ve taken the info off now and put it right’ That was all they said. Yesterday I went back to the doctor about something else. I had a vaccination while I was there. When I went through afterwards to see my doctor, the GP told me I shouldn’t have had this because I’m pregnant. My sister is pregnant, not me! Again, the practice manager is totally not bothere, saying ‘we’ve removed it now-don’t worry.’ We’re planning to take this further this time. Not good is it?!

Although the info was wrong, it’s actually pretty alarming that someone gave you a vaccination when it said you were pregnant that a pregnant person shouldn’t have. If the gp could see the info then the nurse/HCA should have been able to see it.
Shocking that it had happened once, how on earth did they manage to mix you and your sister up twice?

That's disgraceful. Complain without a doubt.

This is absolutely dreadful. Complain to everyone and anyone you can.

I would ask the practice manager for a copy of their complaints procedure and then take it from there. I know from friends who work at the local surgery, that this would be taken very seriously by the doctors there as it is a massive breach.

What job was it?

It's an appalling breach of GDPR guidelines, and has resulted in you finding some information out about your dsis, that she wanted to keep to herself. Data protection is paramount & I really can't understand their blase attitude about it! Both yourself and your sister have been treated appallingly!

Report to CQC

When DS was six days old he was admitted to A&E under the wrong (foreign) name. It was one of those "what are the chances of that??" situations (baby with same first name born on same day to a mother with a foreign surname similar to mine), and because no one checked the full name when they called him in, or showed me his tags, I only realised when I saw his ankle tags on the ward. There were computer systems in place to prevent this kind of mishap, but to the system the surnames were sufficiently different. I did complain to PALS, and had an extremely apologetic ward manager call me up and explain what had happened and reassuring me that the staff involved would be notified. And that wasn't even that serious (could have been though!) Definitely complain, kick up a massive stink! It's appalling and their reaction just makes it worse! At least when I pointed it out the doctor was absolutely mortified and filed an incident form.

They are being blasé about it to give you the impression that it’s not a big issue, so you think complaining about it would get you nowhere so you just don’t bother.

Christ, I would raise merry hell if this had happened to me 😡

It is a breach of GDPR guidelines and I am fairly sure that if this happened recently they needed to do an investigation and inform you and your sister of the breach and outcome of the investigation in writing.

To be honest I would have been happy with an apology in the first instance, but I'm rather concerned it has happened again, unless the coding of pregnancy happened at the same time as the first mix up.

I'm also wondering how it happened. Are you twins or do you have a very similar name and same address? That would at least explain how it could have come about.

If so, it will be easy for them to pop an alert on each of your records that will remind them to take extra care when selecting the patient.

If not, well I have no idea how it happened.

I bet you sister is furious too. I would both make separately make a complaint to commission and change GP surgery too.

That is absolutely shocking.

Did you tell the company you applied for they’d got the wrong records?

Many years ago, I was prescribed something that I was allergic to. I only realised after I had taken the first dose, and had a (fortunately fairly minor) reaction to it. I was a teenager at the time and didn't realise what the tablets were (amoxycillin rather than penicillin, which I knew I was allergic to, as had had a reaction as a baby).

Some months later, my sister went to the doctors and was told that she couldn't have penicillin for her throat infection, as she was allergic to it! Our notes had evidently been mixed up at some point when we were younger. This was before GDPR etc but does show how important it is that these notes are carefully segregated.

NB we are not twins but close in age with similar names. My name is often spelt with her initial IYSWIM and I reckon at some point this is what caused the confusion. Either way, it is awful to get notes confused on so many levels. Complain and hope that makes them improve their processes.

Complain.
And thanks to the GDPR, you can demand to have your records modified/put straight. The survey has to agree and do it.

The fact they are still mixing things up says that they haven’t actually solved whatever the problem is.
They have to. Imagine you or your dsis end up in hospital and they don’t know she is pregnant because things are mixed up etc...

I would raise merry hell about this. It is totally unacceptable.

I would also consider moving to a different surgery, as I wouldn't trust this one's competence.

Complain, complain, complain. That is indeed a serious failure on their part. They are trying to minimise it in the hope that you don’t take it further but you definitely need to. Both you and your sister need to email CQC. This could have had serious repercussions if they had given your sister some meds not realising she was pregnant.

Have you contacted the company where you had the interview to tell them what has happened? Also, is there a chance you didn’t get the job because they, wrongly, thought you were pregnant?

My friends mum was in hospital last year and the ward rang to say that she had died. When friend and her family got there they found her mum sitting up in bed drinking tea and having her breakfast. The ward had rung the wrong family!

That’s shocking, report immediately to cqc. They have breeched both you and your sisters confidentiality. They could have very easily caused either you or your sister actual physical harm. Their attitude is outrageous and completely unprofessional but more importantly it’s dangerous.
Please report, those responsible need to be held to account and their services need to be made safe.

That's a huge gdpr and confidentiality breech!
Sometimes the systems are shit though - i was in hospital last year and they asked me who my new next of kin was as my dad was dead - I can assure you my dad very much Isn't dead! He has a common name and they looked at the wrong one.

I work in medical records and one of the things that has been drilled into me is to always check patient's name, DOB and NHS number before - all three of those identifying factors must match - before doing anything else! Lots of patients share the same or similar name with others at the practice so names alone are a really rubbish way of identifying the correct patient. I am also very particular about putting a flash-up warning on records if there are two or more patients in the practice with the same or similar name. This means that every time a HCP accesses the record for any reason - appointment, prescription, to scan in a document etc etc - they are prompted to double check that they are on the record for the correct patient. Of course mistakes can happen, but there are very basic checks that should take place every time a record is accessed. I would be very concerned that your practice do not appear to be taking even the most basic precautions with the patient records in their care.

Sue them. Only the threat of its costing money and professional shaming will make these lazy careless people change their ways. Disgraceful.

Sue the nhs yep great idea 😡

Definitly complain this shouldnt be happening an investigation needs to be carried out and assurances this wont happen again.

That's really wrong, what if they'd done the wrong treatment on you ? Got visions of you going in for an ingrowing toenail and coming out minus a kidney ! Did the job offer get sorted once you'd realised the breach ?

Mine is far less serious buy annoys the hell out of me. Somehow my medical records still have an address and GPI lived at 15 years ago on them.and I cant get it off for love nor money. I have lived at 2 addresses since and has 2 different GPs, notifying everybody, switching GP etc at the time. My current GP has my correct address whenever I check. Yet whenever I make an appointment at the local hospital, they send it out to the old address, the old GP gets letters about me and prescriptions have the old address and GP on I dont receive smear test reminders etc for the same reason. My maternity notes for 2 babies born at that hospital while I was at my current address, have the old address on them even though Id moved years before.

Ive spoken and wriiten to medical records at the local hospital. They assure me all is correct. It still keeps happening. Drives me insane.