I've just been sent the full medical records of another person

[Chantelli]

I asked for a report and medical reports under the FOI. I have been emailed a pdf of another person's full medical history instead of my own. The email was unencrypted and the name completely dissimilar to mine. I have emailed back and no response.

Surely this is illegal?

This does happen more than people realise. I receive medical records from the NHS regularly in my job and we've had a few occasions where we've been sent the wrong patients's records.

This happened to me before. I received a copy of a referral letter (in my name, for a procedure I needed), but the letter included details of someone else's medical history with lots of their medical notes stapled to the letter for reference!

I called the GP surgery and there was a full investigation made. I can't remember what the outcome was, but I was kept informed and was issued with a full apology.

@Handsoffisback

Oh my Christ. I’d be contacting said other person for them to raise Merry hell also. What a disgrace

Do not do that OP!

Whoever sent it will be shitting themselves right now. Go through the correct channels.

I would report to Information Commissioners Office (ICO) immediately - serious GDPR breach.

I used to work in an NHS-related field. not in a clinical capacity, and it was ridiculous how frequently I'd open the internal mail and find someone's medical details staring me in the face.

This sort of thing is absolutely inevitable so long as you have human beings involved in the process. All you can do is make those responsible aware and ask them to explain what changes they plan to make to mitigate it occurring in future.

This sort of thing is absolutely inevitable so long as you have human beings involved in the process. All you can do is make those responsible aware and ask them to explain what changes they plan to make to mitigate it occurring in future.

Some basic encryption would help. Although if they follow the model of my local council, they'd send the password along with the file.

32 years in IT behind me, and I trust no one and nothing. And you can multiply that by a million when you talk about public authorities.

No need for all this merry hell.

Let them know asap, ask them to assure you that yours haven't been sent to someone else, report calmly through the correct channels.

@MeadowHay

This does happen more than people realise. I receive medical records from the NHS regularly in my job and we've had a few occasions where we've been sent the wrong patients's records.

Yep, I receive medical records & reports as part of my job and this happens fairly regularly. Not saying that makes it ok, just not that unusual.

When I was pregnant with dd, the midwife somehow managed to swap over a section of my notes with someone else’s. It had the other ladies medical details and all of her blood tests results. I panicked for a few minutes as the other lady was hiv positive and when I saw this I thought my bloods had come back as hiv positive. In my panic, I didn’t bother checking the name at the top was not mine.

This was in 2011 and I made a complaint but not much came of it. They sent me an apology letter and said it was an isolated incident. It’s quiet scary when you think about it. The form has the other lady’s blood test results, her address, nhs number, medical history, the fact she was hiv positive. She also had mine.

@DidoAtTheLido

No need for all this merry hell.

Let them know asap, ask them to assure you that yours haven't been sent to someone else, report calmly through the correct channels.

If you treat it as normal, then people will continue to do it, as it's treated as normal.

I'm not a massive fan of draconian penalties, but I suspect that the first time this happened (and it's a disgrace we know it isn't) the person responsible was punished incredibly severely, then we wouldn't be here now.

And if it transpires that the systems make it inevitable then we find the people who ordered them and do the same to them.

But we won't so - spoiler alert - nothing will happen.

If you treat it as normal, then people will continue to do it, as it's treated as normal.

I'm not a massive fan of draconian penalties, but I suspect that the first time this happened (and it's a disgrace we know it isn't) the person responsible was punished incredibly severely, then we wouldn't be here now.

I don't think anyone should be punished severely for human error. It needs to be looked at to make sure it doesn't happen again but the person who made the mistake is only human.

OMFG, that's a major cock up. Formally complain/report it to people senior to the sending person.

Lots of merry hell and shit flying around. This is a breach and someone made a mistake. It should be reported. The end.

I don't think anyone should be punished severely for human error. It needs to be looked at to make sure it doesn't happen again but the person who made the mistake is only human.

So how many hundreds of times do we need to look at it before doing something ?

Someone made a mistake why not lose them their job.

The thing is, if this is NHS, OP, hospital admin services are in dire straits at the moment. The staff probably know full well that they are at risk of making mistakes with the amount of work they're expected to get through, they may even have complained to their managers about it. Is the new trainee adequately supervised, for example? Are the bank staff adequately trained? Possibly not. It's people higher up who are to blame probably. (and of course, ultimately the government, for not funding the NHS properly!)

Whatever you do, you need to try and make sure that whoever gets the bollocking, it is the right person and not some poor junior member of staff who got a stress headache trying to stuff 400 envelopes before 5pm.

Maybe I’m too nice, but I actually feel sorry for the person responsible.
They’re probably for the chop now over an (albeit massive) error. I don’t think they set out this morning to fuck up. I wouldn’t like to be in their shoes.

Highly unlikely if it's a public sector employee that they'd be dismissed over this.

You would hope there would be protocols under a subject access request that would be effectively followed to ensure the correct records were sent to the correct person.

Entirely possible, X
In my organisation this would be treated as a major disciplinary issue.

I live in terror of doing this. I have done it on a more minor scale in that I sent some financial info to the wrong person who did indeed raise merry hell - rightly I guess - but God it's so easy to do with all the emails and attachments etc flying around and the time pressure these days. Fortunately it didn't get as far as the ICO.

I cannot WAIT to retire so I can be free of regulation and live my life in peace...

Fortunately it didn't get as far as the ICO

Not many do get to the ICO

The ICO report action they've taken and fines

ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/enforcement/

When I was pregnant with ds (who's now 23!) I copped a look at the screen when the GP had turned the other way. I saw that it said that, due to my lifelong spinal issues, an epidural would be out of the question.

I've never had back ache in my life and told the doctor that. He said, "Oh, that must be a mistake and someone's muddled you up with someone else!"

@CallmeAngelina I had similar when I went for a pregnancy appointment. I felt like they were explaining a lot of things to me despite me already having given birth in that hospital two years ago. I dropped in that I remembered from last time and they looked a bit confused then realised they had some other woman's details on the screen.

I'm embarrassed to admit that, whilst not relevant to the anecdote, ds is actually 24, not 23!