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.

@Gurufloof

Similarly if she is the secretary who types the referral letters- what if no-one else does this role? Or it might mean your referral letters are delayed if it has to be put back on the list for someone else to do

I've been that secretary and yes the letter is sent to someone else or different team to be typed. It would have been much worse if I had typed letters for people I knew.

For OP yes the woman can access your records, there's plenty of training around not disclosing anything found out, ever. Its lose your job time if you do. This is actually enforced, audits are done on the system and if its noticed that records were looked at with no reason then explanations have to happen.

Similar situation but not as bad.

someone who worked at my kids school left to work in a medical field in admin. Person was knew everyone

Person became responsible for dealing with my letters ie typing up dictation - related to my very poor health. Initially I was ok ish with it. Assumed proper practice would occur.

Then I found out through a reliable third party at the practice that this person had queried safeguarding of my kids with the doctor due to what they'd read in my notes, because they knew my children. It was part of the job but DEFINITELY not their place.

To say I was pissed off was and is an understatement. The content of my notes was very confidential and personal.

I can ensure you that none of them have any interest in reading them!

That's astonishingly naive of you.
One of the receptionists at my local practice has been known to me for many years, as our daughters went through school together and were good friends. She was one of the nosiest and most gossipy people I've ever known. I can't believe that she had a personality transplant the moment that she got this job.

I've thought about moving practices, and certainly, if I had any problem that was gossip-worthy, I would. But for now I'm relying on my unexciting health record and the surgery's secure practices.

@UnderwaterSymphony

Under the covid code, your record is now shared with third parties without needing consent.

Not sure where you are, but this is not true where I am - I was asked to consent, and I didn't. My records aren't shared with anyone outside of my GP, even in covid times (I know this as the hospital have tried to access them and failed!)

How do you think NHS England will invite you for a covid vacc? Hospitals are different as they don't all use the same system.

[quote goldielockdown2 ]Number3 that's only part of the sentence you just quoted. I could rewrite it but it's still there for you to read. [/quote]
And it still makes no sense. If you think it makes sense you're wrong.

@saraclara I agree with you. Incredibly naive to think that nobody breaks the rules. We are not supposed to do searches where I work and 95% of people abide by that but I know of exceptions. One very nosy man was looking up people's emergency contact to get a clue whether they were single.

Write to the surgery and express your concerns. And say you do not wish this person to have access to your records. At least that will alert them.

At my GP practice,patient notes are online although I think there are still hard copy files.
Anyone looking up your records online will need to log on using their own log in details.This can be tracked and anyone looking up records without good reason to could face disciplinary action.
I worked for a large NHS hospital and people actually lost their jobs for looking up notes of friends and neighbours.

What role will she have? What she can actually access will depend on this. As others have said every access is recorded in your notes so it’s very easy to see when and what has been accessed. This is monitored and accessing without a clear need is a serious breach. I’d you’re worried you could ask for access to your records

I used to work in a medical records department at a hospital. There’s is lots of training with data protection. It’s a criminal offence to access records not needed to complete your job. You do see records of people you know but it would be instant dismissal and more if you shared information in there. You really only see the bit you’re working on, you wouldn’t be able to read through someone’s whole record as if you were seen doing that it would be a disciplinary.

@Viviennemary

Write to the surgery and express your concerns. And say you do not wish this person to have access to your records. At least that will alert them.

Alert them to what?? FFS ....this lady hasn’t even started the job yet....so what if OP thinks she’s ‘mouthy’ at school pick ups.....hardly a sackable offence.....I’m sure many people over the years have called me ‘mouthy’..... hasn’t stopped me carrying out my duties ( registered nurse) professionally for many years.....So what if she is a playground gossip as long as she adheres to confidentiality in her professional role and doesn’t disclose any patient information she has seen in records then she can be as mouthy as she likes.

I used to work as a receptionist at a mental health centre. I could wander into anyone's record I wanted to and look at anything I wanted to... but I had to both log in and put my ID card into a slot on the computer and my every move was recorded. I once made a mistake writing a letter (put a different patient's date of birth on or something like that) and when they looked into it, they could see a log of everything I'd looked at on the patient record system.

So in theory she could snoop on you, but there would be no way she could do it anonymously. And if they did find out, they would absolutely fire her (or at least SERIOUSLY discipline her).

You could move to a different GP, or you could simply ask to speak to a different receptionist every time. In theory they could put a note on your record saying that she is not to deal with your appointments but that may well get overlooked.

I havent RTFT but as pp have said, it will be logged everything she searches and you get in a world of trouble for GDPR breaches.
Wont she be too busy for trivial stuff like that? My local GP the admin staff seem like they dont have a minute!
Finally, as an aside i have a friend who works in a large hospital & she wanted to know her last smear date (or somethin similar i forget the details) so she went down to Gynae to ask and they physically couldnt even accese the information.

Just echoing what others have said. I work as a receptionist in a GP surgery and yes, she will be able to look at your records. However, firstly, she will have to sign a confidentiality form and it will pointed out to her about 'malicious viewing '. She should not just have a nose or browse without an administration or medical need to do so. If you rang her up cos you wanted to find out when your last tetanus was for example, she would of course be able to tell you. Professionally, that is all she should look up. Technically, she could browse all other areas of your records too. However, this is audited (as in her accessing your records in the first place whether she was doing it as part of her job or maliciously viewing). The only way to stop her completely is to (as others have said) write to the practice manager and get her blocked from viewing your records.
If she was caught discussing your medical records with others, it is an immediate sackable offence and I've seen it happen so she would pretty stupid to do that.
I have friends who are at the surgery where I work and I would never dream of looking at their records without their consent for a professional reason but sadly , it does happen.

I think for me, it's not the fact that she would be disciplined or sacked that concerns me, it's the knowledge that she would know something about me I wanted to keep private
I wouldn't risk it

Probably not what you want to hear but when I started my job, to get used to the computer notes system, I was allowed to search and look through any patient records without clinical need.
I did notice a couple of names I recognised but I didn’t open their records because it felt wrong to do so in that context.

Do they delete your record if you leave?

Honestly, if it bothers you I would move practice.

Yes she shouldn't access records and could easily lose her job if she did. BUT -the trouble is that yes, what is most likely to happen (as she would know the drill) would be to have a nose when she legitimately had your records up, eg when you called to make an appointment.

Sadly yes I'd expect a snoopy type to have a look when she got a legitimate 'chance' and yes, not be averse to a 'don't tell ANYONE but...' conversation with her closest friends. It's sadly human nature.

If it worries you, move.

I work at a gps in the area of my dcs school and I would never dream of looking at anyone's record unless I had too, even then it's against the rules for me to ever dicuss it I would loose my job

If she’s mouthy she’ll probably be a really good doctors receptionist

/off topic

You can ask the surgery to block her from viewing your records.

We do this for staff who have family members at the practice.

Practice managers are not spending hours checking who has looked at records unless we have a genuine reason to be concerned.

What would I do?
I'd not say anything and I'd give it 6 months and ensure I have not contacted the practice in that period and then I would ask the practice to audit who has viewed my record.

If she has followed her training and the law she will not have accessed your record unnecessarily and the audit will be clear - she may have asked a colleague to look at it for her so don't ignore other unnecessary access. If she has not then she has committed a criminal act and I would make official complaint.

People are nosy and they do look at records - I have seen this and had to take action. My first sentence with a new staff member is, "if you look at a patient record and there is no evidence of a need for you to do it I will sack you on the spot as it is a criminal act you are breaking". Patients need to know that they can trust the controller of their confidential data. That said, it is easy to click on the wrong name in error (same / similar names or addresses) so we don't sack everyone for human error!!

@Number3BigCupOfTea

Do they delete your record if you leave?

I'm pretty sure your records are transferred to your new practice.

Hate to break it to all of those who think it's "heavily monitored" and only accessible on a need to know basis, I used to work as admin in a hospital and could access anyone's records using their name and date of birth.
My DM also worked there and would use it to access her husband's doctor's letters to see when his next appointment was due or what the doctor was recommending if she wasn't able to attend the appointment with him.
I used the system to get my half brother's telephone number, and could easily when and where he had been in the hospital trust I worked in.

It would only be flagged if someone regularly accessed the same person's records which didn't tally with appointments or if they were investigating a complaint

@RuthW NHS England have my contact details, these are different to my medical records.

I've already had my vaccine, and no they didn't know, or have access to my medical records - I had my vaccine in a vaccine centre attached to a hospital.

My records are not shared, I have opted out of it - with good reason. They cannot be accessed by anyone outside of my GP practice. There's very, very good reason for why this is in place, and I won't be the only person in the country who has this (anyone can opt out of record sharing).

I have signed a separate consent form for contact details - like I said contact details and medical records are two different things.

I know a GP receptionist and I know she has looked at at least one person’s record which is awful

I am a nurse and I wouldn’t dream of it. Firstly because it’s such a horrible thing to do and secondly because, if found out, my career would be on the chopping block. Reason 1 is enough for me.

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.