School Mum starting at GP

[KnowlWay]

Is there any way to ensure she can’t access my medical records? She’s very mouthy. We get on okay but I don’t want her knowing anything about my health. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable. My husband does and thinks she won’t get a chance to be nosey.

When my best mate was pregnant, a nurse (on shift) that was a neighbour spotted her in the maternity ward and started quite a bit of gossip. It got back to her partners family and caused a lot of drama, they were trying to keep it quiet as she had a miscarriage previously. Her partners formal complaint was taken to formal warning and she didn’t even view her records!

@AdviceSoNameChange that is not allowed, you have to request access to your own medical records so she certainly shouldn't be using her position to look at those.

I used to work in a job where I had access to files on people's children. Children of celebrities etc. It was national database. I could check however many times I liked and no one knew how often |I was checking. I could get addresses, phone numbers, the lot.

I never did nosey (in case anyone wondered). There was no one I really wanted to have a nosey at but plenty of colleagues did. They only got caught if they used that information e.g. to contact an ex or whatever.

But anyone can have a nosey. Having a policy against it doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

I used to work on reception for a Medical Centre and now mostly deal with admin for a service for patients from outside of practice area. I'm very grateful that I don't live anywhere near I work, but all my colleagues do.
While we can access the patients' records, we only click through to the consultation notes if there is a reason to, such as "I can't remember when Doctor wanted to see me again/can you remind me which cream to put on which bit?"
The majority of queries can be answered by looking at the specific part of the record, the appointment dates, referral page, prescription list, vaccination record, clinic letters etc. it is not very often we would need to view the actual consultation notes.
On the occasions I have to deal with referrals in and it's a name I recognise, I ask my colleague to deal with them - failing that, I make no reference to knowing who they are when we speak and hope they don't twig. I have absolutely no interest in viewing their private information, am very mindful not to and honestly, after many years in this job, absolutely nothing shocks me anymore anyway. It all gets very boring after a while and we're all more concerned with getting a query dealt with and answering the incessantly ringing phone!

I have quite sensitive stuff in my records and in the past when I’ve visited the surgery the receptionist etc only is able to see what I’ve been prescribed etc and you’d need a bit of medical knowledge to know what they are, they don’t have access to the personal info you discuss at appointments unless they are given access via the gp.
I know sometimes there’s ‘Notes’ on files as during a particular difficult time in my life, if I went to make an appointment they’d often try and get me in the same day or even slip me in between appointments.
A friend of mine is a healthcare assistant who does the bloods and stuff and I asked her what she could see on my file and she brought it up on the screen to acknowledge my appointment as attended and it just said my appointment requested for bloods by which gp.

I wouldn’t worry I think she will probably know many people at the surgery and won’t be able to access the sensitive info without the GP code even if she wanted to.

Move surgeries.
She can view ur records. There will be a trail, but u only have to make 1 app for it to be legit.

@abeanbaked Thank you for replying :-)

The husband is a relative and we have been concerned in the past that she is very controlling of him (perhaps worse).

But when she was saying about looking at his records, someone questioned her and said it wasn’t allowed. But she said he gave his permission so was fine. Thanks again.

I had this with a friend who worked at my bank, I was sure she would look. We just moved bank .....

I can for sure see some one losing their career to look at your records that potentially just say you've had antibiotics a few times

You can have your record locked. I used to work in a GP surgery and we had a few locked records that could only be accessed by a manager.

@Yesmate

You can have your record locked. I used to work in a GP surgery and we had a few locked records that could only be accessed by a manager.

You can but I would think carefully about doing it as it can affect how easily you can access care, people with a bona fide reason can’t get into your records easily either!

I can understand your worry, OP.
I did an Access to Nursing course years back. There was a lady in my cohort who was an utter bitch... she wanted to go into mental health nursing of all things.
Fast forwards a few years and I am inpatient on a psychiatric ward, and she is an HCA there. She was not allowed to directly be involved with me, but she heard all about me during handovers. I was told she would not be sat casually looking through my notes during her lunch break. Any patient file being opened by staff is done because they need to and it is subject to audit.

@BungleandGeorge the way it worked at our surgery is it was receptionists and admin staff that couldn’t access it, we could still book appointments but couldn’t check for results etc of the patient wanted them for example. They would in that case have to wait as opposed to having the I formation straight away.

@UnderwaterSymphony

I used to work as admin in a hospital and could access anyone's records using their name and date of birth.

No, you could access those who had consented to record sharing, only.

You may think it was anyone but it isn't anyone, it's people who haven't opted out of record sharing.

@UnderwaterSymphony no, it was anyone who had been to the hospital trust I worked at. I could view their hospital appointments and their letters that the doctors had written to their GP following their appointments. I could also have found the paper copy of their medical notes if I wanted to

Yes, she can access your records. But I'm sure if she's the receptionist, she won't need to access that particular area, just the appointments section. Tho she would see your blood results etc appear on the screen. Each time someone logs on to someone's medical record it notes it.

I would change GP surgeries

If the possibility of her accessing her records bothers you just move to another surgery, problem solved

I think all you can glean from this thread is that some people are very honest and trustworthy and might see your records but would never discuss that information. Others are less so...

why would she be the slightest bit interested in your medical records?

All the people who've commented something like this, do you have no imagination at all? I'm a nosy person and I would happily spend hours reading medical notes if it was allowed and there were no consequences. I don't work in that field btw, but I think curiosity is a fairly common character trait, and if it happens to be paired with a gossipy nature or maliciousness or dishonesty it's easy to see how some of the shocking examples on here have happened.

But even if this woman is lovely, discreet, honest, etc, I personally feel uncomfortable about anyone I know having access to my personal records. Maybe the OP feels the same.

She will only have access if you call for any reason but it’s more than her jobs worth so try not to worry.

I knew someone who was a nurse so asked that it wasn't her that did my smear as I would have felt awkward.

Have worked for NHS and ethics training / GDPR made it clear thay unless there is a need you don't access patient records and it would be a disciplinary / criminal offence to discuss medical records beyond work.They could also track online who had opened records.

The OP has said that she gets on okay with this school mum and that she’s quite a nice person. Yes she’s ‘gobby’ but she’s not, from the OP’s description, an unpleasant gossip.

Yes, by all means change surgeries if you’re that worried, OP. But from the way you’ve described this lady, it sounds to me as if you might be overthinking this.

I am absolutely sure that all stern warnings about staff being monitored when looking at patients files are more for deterrent, and have zero efficiency in practice.
I am absolutely certain that someone from my ex's circle checked my medical records as very precise claims were made during the family court hearings about things that were known only to me and my GP, I haven't ever told a living thing about it. Ex claimed to know it from me, but I have never told him about it either. To do with an unseen health condition that could, in his opinion, impact my ability to care for the children.

OP, I work at a GP practice and as others have said, Receptionists do usually have full access to the medical records. It’s easily sorted though, you can have yours blocked from all but the Doctors and Management.

We have a couple of patients who have blocked accounts due to being related to other staff members.

I was very concerned when a manager told my crew mate (ambulance) all about how he’d been in one of our Trusts hospitals 30 years ago! She actually made a habit of it and when reported for a data breach, no disciplinary, in fact was promoted with the next 15 months.