Political letter from my gp telling who to vote for

[FluffyJellyCat]

Is this even allowed? The gp isn't wrong in what he is saying. But how did he get my personal data to write to me? It's a proper letter addressed to me at my address. Could he access my data for a local election?

Conflict of interest? Gdpr? I'm not going to complain because I have enought going on in my life. But surely this isn't allowed?

What next? The schools head telling me who to vote for?

I wouldn't, but my elderly parents still hold their GP in such high esteem, that they he told them to vote a particular way they would do.

OP doesn't know that. He could have got her address from the electoral roll.

Doctors are allowed to express political opinions, just like anyone else! There are quite a few who are MPs.
It's not appropriate to bring it up in a consultation, but outside work is fine.

How could it be coercion? It can't conceivably affect the way he treats patients as he won't know how they voted.

Your gp has your address……
As to whether they should be entering into campaigning with your data is another matter.

I’d be really annoyed receiving that. From a school, a GP, a dentist etc. it feels like it’s crossing a line.

This contravenes the Hippocratic Oath.

😂😂Yeah right try the GMC.... A political body if I ever saw one!

A case in point, a 5 day Junior doctors strike directly prior to a General Election, when there isn't a standing Government to negotiate anything. 👏👏👏

It would be remarkable if a GP made that level of data protection mistake.

My money is on it not coming from the surgery!

I thought this when the daily fail run an article telling people how to tactically vote to ensure labour didn’t win. How is that even allowed?

People have short memories or their brains aren't engaged.

Labour caved to the doctors demands the last time they were in power.....leading to reduced GP hours, no out of hours home visits, no overnight GP cover and a huge salary increase for less productivity... A great deal for the doctors , not so much for their patients.

Well, what does it say on the letter? What paper is it on? I think all party literature has to have the 'promoted by...' sentence somewhere.

On GP paper or party paper?

Not sure if it was mentioned, but there is an explicit prohibition in the UK law (might be just England and Wales - have not checked) for religious leaders to tell their worshippers how to vote.
And the NHS is the closest the UK has to an organised universal religion, in my opinion.

Eh? Newspapers in the UK have never had to be impartial.

This is what it will be

"As a medical professional I find this very uncomfortable. It’s one thing to campaign for a political party on the weekends, be seen in public speaking out about issues etc. but approaching patients as individuals (I appreciate that this was likely done through the party using the ‘correct channels’ rather than using patient details) could be considered coercion."

Yes, but the letter has presumably been sent to all local people so how could he take his patients out of the list without disclosing who they are?
I definitely agree that they have a right to be political activists in their own time like most other workers.

Our headteacher did the same at the last general election. Not cool IMO.

😂

It'll be a scam from an unscrupulous political group (not even necessarily the party mentioned). I'd let your GP know this has gone out in his/her/their name.

I suppose it depends on how they got your data and if they tried to match it with your records.

If the GP got your data (and others) from the electoral records and used it to write to all people on it, then that's fine.

If the GP got your data from the electoral records AND then matched it with data from the GP Practise to see that you were his patient, that's not fine.

If the GP used your data from the NHS practise, that's not fine.

Wow that’s crazy. I work at a school and there is no way we would do this. Plus there are hardly any schools under local authority now most are Academies.

This would really annoy me, if a GP has got time to fart arse about getting involved in politics, then he has got time to see patients.

That is bang out of order. Something for both the Information Commissioner and the Electoral Commission.