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?

It depends on where it comes from.

If I run a business and collect your data, I can only use it for the purposes you agree to. I can't use that data for any other purpose that is not clear from the privacy notice.

If I run a business, but collect your data from the electoral register and use that data, then that's ok. Because I haven't used the data that I collected from you that is on my database.

If I do some cross correlation with my data and the data on the register, try to fill in missing fields and then use other available data to get a marketing list, then you are into a whole new territory of processing.

Even if the letter was sent purely from the electoral role in a purely political capacity
Even if your GP is completely right that we have to get the Tories out
This is an abuse of power as he is your GP.
My professional body would take a very dim view of this.

Then report it.

Is there a party imprint on the bottom somewhere in very tiny print? It may be that this has been sent by the political party he's supporting

Can't edit my earlier pose, but the relevant section is this:

1. Staff activism: NHS employees are free to undertake political activism in a personal capacity but should not involve their organisation or create the impression of their organisation’s involvement.

So I guess it depends on whether they are acting on their own behalf or whether they are appearing to speak for the organisation.

If that were true, nobody from your profession could ever run for office. They could never advertise that they were standing, never send a leaflet out in case it went to a client, never put a poster up in case a customer recognised them and realised they were standing for a particular political party....

They may as well, it's going to be the only way I see a GP anytime soon.
I'd prefer they just did it already. Then at least I can choose one near me at a price I'm willing to pay. Instead of having to travel miles and pay a hundred quid.

Is it a full moon tonight? It must be.

This exactly. It really is worrying that so many people on this thread have clearly not got a clue how things work.

This is completely unacceptable.

Already did!

We all need to do our bit against the bot farms.

If they are a party member and have put their name to a letter sent by a political association from an electoral register list - fine.

If they are a local GP who has written to practice patients on practice notepaper to encourage them to vote according to the author's beliefs not fine. If in addition such a communication has been funded by practice resources from the NHS funds - absolutely not fine.

The argument in relation to professional boundaries is important too in each scenario and bears scrutiny.

It is really difficult to comment without the full facts.

Why? They have your children's best interests at heart. As a teacher, I have to be impartial when I'm teaching the children but that doesn't mean I am not allowed to have a political opinion or voice it elsewhere. Government policy has a direct impact on the job I do. If government policy is making my job impossible and having a negative impact on the children in my care, why shouldn't I advise parents to think about this when they vote. It is up to them to decide who they vote for based on the information they have.

That is correct, nobody from my profession could ever send a political flyer to a patient. Simple, you never send them in the constituency you work in. By using your position in a caring profession to influence, this is an abuse of power.

You seem to believe it’s only possible to stand in a constituency you work in. Why?

You seem to believe it’s only possible to stand in a constituency you work in. Why?

I'm from Ireland. You have to live in the constituency you're running in. I didn't realise you don't in the UK.

Of course schools and Drs want you to vote Labour.
Our education & health care systems are completely and utterly on their knees!

Our kids are sat all day pong in underfunded, uninspiring education settings with teachers leaving in droves.

Our sick elderly parents are in hospitals with less staff than are able to cope with feeding them, moving them to prevent bed sores, washing them, helping them fucking go to the toilet.

Never mind the carers, public transport, the police or the environment emergency!

What more do you need to know FGS. Just vote them out! 🙏

Our local Tories have sent letters out ‘from’ community figures instructing us to vote. One from the neighbourhood busy body. They are definitely actually sent out from the party office, I saw it hand delivered and asked

Rosina Allin-Khan does shifts in her local A&E. How do you think she's successfully stood for election in the past without getting into trouble if what you say is true? It would be impossible for her to campaign if she excluded everyone she'd ever treated - and she'd have to keep a personal note of who they were in order to do so which probably would be an actual GDPR violation.

I am also a teacher. Like you, I have my students' best interests at heart. It's fine to be political - e.g.strike, go on demos, be active politically in your life outside of school. Not fine to impose your political views on the school community.

I received a personally addressed campaign leaflet from the LibDems - I've no involvement with them, and I tick the NO option on the electoral register so my details should not be public.

I have no idea how they got my details to contact me this way, but whatever it is it must be a breach of GDPR.

I think it depends entirely on the letter.

If it’s on a practice (practise? I never get these the right way round) letterhead and they’ve got your address from your medical records then that is clearly wrong on several fronts.

If it’s from a GP, who coincidentally happens to be yours, they’re writing to as many people as they can, in their own time and as an independent individual, and they’ve got your details from the electoral roll, then I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with it. Reading manifestos isn’t something that all voters do and it’s good to hear how a particular field will be impacted by someone who knows what they’re talking about, particularly if they’re disclosing their profession to make it clear that they do, in fact, have a decent understanding and aren’t just reeling off stuff the MP’s have come up with.

I’d be more inclined to have an issue if the letter was ‘vote for A’ than if it was ‘If you vote for B, these will be the consequences for your GP surgery’.

It’s a legitimate campaign tool

Only if it has an imprint on it.

Did the letter carry an imprint, @FluffyJellyCat? It's in small print usually, and gives a name and address and name of the party.

You are conflating 'ever treated ongoing treatment. A&E admission by their nature tend to be of very limited duration.
Ongoing therapeutic alliances where someone is a long-term gatekeeper to future access to care is a whole different power dynamic.

All details on the electoral register are available to registered political parties.

The not being public part does not apply to them. So no breach of GDPR. It just means that random members of the public or businesses can't look you up.

In the same way that political parties have the right to deliver literature and knock on doors even if there is a notice on the door saying no leaflets/junk mail/cold callers etc.

I know they are a medical journal. They published an article on not publicising political leanings, never mind telling patients who to vote for