AIBU to strongly suspect my pharmacist of selling my highly personal medication details to other companies

[Chowtime]

I am on regular medication that I receive in the post by PillTime which is automatically delivered every 4 weeks.

I received this email today from a company I've never heard of

I tried to call you today to discuss your current issue with reflux.
I see that you have re-started esomeprazole, can I ask what dose and how frequently?

I would suggest you take 20mg twice a day, morning and evening.

If you would like to discuss this further with me please dont hesitate to call 0121 693 4488 and request a nurse call. Alternatively you can reply to this email.

Best Wishes,

Lyndsay Westall
Bariatric Nurse Specialist
Tel: 0121 752 5632

Healthier Weight
The UK's Weight Loss Specialists
11/12 Highfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3EB
T: 0121 693 4488

How can she possibly have access to this information other than from the pharmacy? Isn't this a breach of GDPR and if so, who can I report it to.

It’s very badly written, with grammatical mistakes. I would suspect a scam.

A quick Google confirms the nurse, company, address and phone number are real..

Maybe it’s best just to contact them to ask how they got your details?

Chance!

So many people take it and many (if not most) are overweight that it will reach people who fit that description by chance.

I had one today about my depression meds except I don't have depression, never have

the Name and number are correct and there is a registered nurse of that name in Birmingham according to the NMC who are the professional and registration body for nursing . I would phone the nurse and find out where they got your info from . Sounds like they are trying to sell weight loss interventions maybe ?? You can contact the NMC for advice about if this is a reportable incident as shouldn’t be giving dosing advice without a consultation?

Plot twist, OP is really Lyndsay Westall and just trying to increase traffic to her website 😂

Thanks for all your help and suggestions i've decided to report next week when i've got a bit more time

IIRC, there was some new policy that came in in June (?) 2021, very quietly, whereby GP surgeries were allowed to share all your medical information with third parties for commercial and/or research purposes. There was a short window of time in which people needed to contact their GPs and opt out of the data sharing, otherwise consent was assumed. It was very weird, not really publicised by the government at all.
So it may not be your pharmacy; it may be your GP.

Surely it would be so much quicker and easier just to ask how they got your email address?

Could it possibly be a review from someone linked to the pharmaceutical company itself? I keep getting calls from my local pharmacy about my asthma inhalers because they want to do a "medication review". The last time, I lost my patience and told them to piss off because it really irritated me that they were using my contact details for this. But it was what popped into my mind when I read your OP.

Ah, yes, here we go. This article from 2021 describes the "data grab" of all of our medical records:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/03/gp-nhs-digital-data-patients-records-england

To be fair that would get a 10/10 from me for marketing tactics 😂😂

Exactly… I think some people don’t actually know what the word “scam” means…

That would be far too sensible.

Thank you. I can't help thinking that someone high up who authorised this also profits from it.

Just when I thought the government couldn't stoop any lower.

It's not them getting hold of my email address that bothers me in the slightest. It's them getting hold of my medication information I'm posting about.

That is totally a fishing scam. Don't reply to the email because they then know your email Is valid and in use. And the information they claim to have is wrong.

They want you to call them so that they can source more information from you which could result in data loss or worse.

At the moment it doesn't appear any data has actually been stolen or given - have you cut the email short for the post - was it even addressed to you?

It was addressed to me by name. The only part of the email I haven't shown here is the first line which says

"Dear (my first name)"

It's a scam. That is one of the most commonly use medications, so they are throwing out that message in the hope that somebody bites.

I'm tired but trying to make sense of this. what is the scam then? Is it just that they are hoping someone will ring them and that they will be able to sell me something? Are genuine registered nurses allowed to do stuff like this?