Near miss data breach - DD’s NHS appointment letter.

[user1488481370]

DD (8) was referred to a continence nurse around 7/8 months ago now as she’s still wet on a night.

Difficulty being that one of the continence nurses in the area is our next door neighbour (shes also my partner’s brother’s girlfriend) who has made our lives hell for the last couple of years. So much so they the police have been involved on numerous occasions and she’s been interviewed and cautioned. When I asked for DD to be referred, I explicitly asked that this person had nothing to do with her care.
We got a lovely nurse and DD has made great progress with her.

Said nurse always sends appointments letters, we’ve had numerous letters so far - they have always had the correct address on them.

The latest letter, however, has said neighbour’s address on. I’m so suspicious and really smell a rat. I’ve asked others opinions and they smell a rat too but I wanted the over all consensus from a bunch of anonymous people who will give it to me straight and perhaps won’t humour me and my anxious mind.

Its only because we had a new postie that the letter wasn’t delivered to their house.

I rang the appropriate department last week and asked which address they had on file for DD. They read out the correct address and even simulated a letter to see which address appeared and again, it was the correct one. Lady on the phone was very apologetic and has put a note on the system about the address.

My neighbour really, really has it in for us, without going into too much detail. I’m so paranoid that she’s somehow changed DD’s address on the system, sent the letter and then changed it back again. I just can’t understand how this letter has their address on it. Even the lady I spoke to was perplexed. I want it investigating but are these things traceable? Is it a waste of time?

I work in NHS admin on the clinical side. I send out appointment letters for the Consultant I work with. The computer fills in all the demographics (date, address, nhs no, dob). However, you wouldn't have to change the address on the patients records to get it to change on the letter. There is a stage in the process where the letter is 'editable'.

No but they WILL tell you if your notes have been accessed and changed inappropriately. People do get informed, not necessarily naming names.
The Batshit girlfriend will have the same postcode and that will be a big red flag

@thenightsky would the editing process be changeable? As I said, the receptionist I spoke to simulated a letter and the correct address was on it and she was just as stumped as I was.

For further detail, this woman has worked from
home since the beginning of the pandemic. However she did randomly go out in her uniform one day around the time that this letter was dated which has aroused my suspicions further.

I’m sorry, I hate to drip feed.

@thenightsky sorry, traceable not changeable!

@thenightsky it would presumably show who generated that letter?

Is it possible to move?

I don't think anyone has suggested this but could it be a fake/mocked up letter?

Could batshit-neighbour have made up a fake letter to get you to report it and then you look loopy because as far as the system is concerned, nothing has happened. If so, they've not thought it through because it's almost a worse "offence", but it's one possibility.

Someone who works in the NHS would find it pretty easy to mock up such a letter - anyone would, but definitely someone with insider knowledge would make it look better. Compare it to others and see. Might be hard to tell I suppose because some of their letters are pretty scrappy.

Definitely still make the report, if this what she's done, for some weird reason, you have the evidence. Though there may be no trace on the system so not sure the NHS could "pin" it on her but they will take it seriously.

@madasawethen we actually rented a separate property for a while and I’ve even moved out with the DC’s to my mums temporarily before now.

Theres an ongoing legal process between them
and us going on in the background and honestly they’ve been very underhanded and don’t have a leg to stand on. We’re hoping for mediation and if not it’s court.

I think you're being paranoid. If you live next door in the same road, it's just the wrong house number.

When you're looking for addresses the computer knows, it supplies the list and all you do is select the right one. In this case, the clinic computer addressing system knows both your address (patient) and the address of the continence nurse who lives next door. Two almost identical addresses; someone in admin absent mindedly clicked the wrong one.

@VanGoghsDog it does look genuine enough but that had crossed my mind.

At this point I’m not bothered about pinning anything on anyone I just want to make sure that she hasn’t been meddling in things she shouldn’t be meddling in and that our private and confidential medical records are secure and not going to be manipulated or used against us.

@2bazookas thank you for telling me straight. I really hope I am just being paranoid.

Shes accepted a police caution and is still working as a registrant? What was the caution for? You'd mostly be struck off under these circumstances.

You didn't say how long you've lived around these people. The letter is just a symptom of the toxic dynamics going on with his family.

Is the property you and your DP owned by his family in some way?

Regardless of the legal thing going on, I'd insist to your DP on moving far far away from all of them.

Photo the letter incase it goes awol. Report the data breech. Find the gdpr person at your local nhs

@DaphneSprucesPippasClack I’ve scanned it to me phone just in case!

But that's not my experience of addresses in medical files

My old address was a bit odd. There was a slight mistake on it on my GPs record. (Two words in the wrong order. Made no difference to receiving Mail)

I never corrected it because that way I could identify when it was related to my ds's appointments!

My point is no one ever had to go in each time to input my address and do any drop down menu stuff. It was automatically linked to our name.

So when something changes I would be querying it.

As a registered nurse your neighbour has to declare that she is upholding the NMC code every year when she renews her registration. She seems to be in breach of “be open and honest, act with integrity and uphold the reputation of your profession” section of the code which calls for her to report being cautioned, charged or found guilty of a criminal offence to the NMC. If she can behave like this to you God knows what she’s getting away with in her patient care. Please report her to the NMC and let them investigate her for the sake of the vulnerable people she “cares” for, her horrible behaviour at home is unlikely to be in isolation.

Yes, as she would still have to go into your records to click on the editable letter link. Unless she was clever enough to use another patient's record (one of her own patients) and edit one of their letters to your demographics. But to do that, she'd have to know your dob, nhs number as the whole letter would have to have the original demographics removed and replaced. Hope that makes sense.

If you are the poster I think you are I am so sorry you are still suffering with your relatives.

Every time anyone logs into a patient record, the system records it. You have to be logged in to an NHS computer to access the system so they record your log in name and the time and date. It would be really easy for the Trust to check if a record had been accessed by someone who wasn't authorised to access it.

It's worth making a formal report and then leave them to investigate. Maybe it's nothing but maybe it's not.

It's drilled into us when we start working for the NHS that we must not access patient records without a clinical reason. That includes our own records or our family's records. It would be a disciplinary offence to even access your own record.

do you know ANYTHING about NHS IT systems?

NMC (all professional clincal bodies) will send you back to the Calicott Guardian or PALS at this point.

I don't think this is what's happened with the OP. When she phoned about it, they generated a letter to check it was working correctly, which sounds like the address is fixed to the record rather than selected? I can't believe they'd select from a drop down menu every time - too risky for data protection, and how would they even know which address to select if they're just sending out appointment letters without the person present?

I

But you do keep taking it back to your batshit neighbour? I am absolutely not saying that you are wrong and yes you do want to get to the bottom of it, but the ID of whoever was logged on to generate that letter will be recorded and remember the adage that cock up is always more common than conspiracy. Remember too that while you will be told certain details about the investigation, you will probably never hear the whole story directly, including any action taken against your neighbour. For your interest, if she is currently registered with the NMC, you can search for her by name and see if ashe is still registered.