To report ex friend who looked at my medical files?

[LadyInRainbow]

Over a year ago a friend told me she’d looked at my medical files, because “she wanted to see what was happening” with an issue I was dealing with, I think she thought she was being helpful and it was a shared care issue that also impacted her. I was stunned at the time and asked her not to do it again. I knew she may have need to look at a certain area of my files due to her job in screening and tracking but she had no need to look at this and I told her I was unhappy at the time.

Anyway long story short this friend has now back stabbed me and made up various stories about me.

Would I be unreasonable to make sure she is blocked from viewing my files again, there’s no need for her to access them as the issue to do with her department is long past & while I brushed it off before when I thought she was was a friend her having access now makes me very uncomfortable.

✅

My husbands ex wife found out we where having a baby. She looked up my medical files to try and find out. This was our 2nd baby too. They have no kids together. But because I hadn't gone to the midwife yet as it was early days. She screen shot my visits and emailed it to my husband and said I was lying 🤔🤣 I reported it. Nothing was done

But you didn't see any reason to report her before you fell out with her, now suddenly it's important....

So you’re scrabbling for revenge.

that’s not embarrassing at all.

You should have done it before you fell out but she still violated your privacy and rights. You should report it to ensure she does not do it to anyone else.

100% report her. If she has looked at your file it will be recorded and she’ll face the consequences because she 100% knows she was risking her job to do that! I’m considering what to do as I have a feeling my SIL bestie might have looked at my medical records.

Whether you decide to report her or not , I hope it's not based on the fact that she made things up about you ? Are her lies connected to her accessing your files or completely separate ?

If they are , then you should report her . If not , it sounds like sour grapes if you report her a year later .

I would report this again as she’s an idiot and sent you evidence. I wonder if the person who looked into this knew her and squashed it. There’s no way this would be allowed to lie/nothing happen from it’

Huge violation and you really need to report. She will be in huge trouble. I can access any patients summary care record. And more when I’m in trust and they’re a patient at the hospital. But if I even opened my own children’s file I could be sacked! I know one nurse who looked at her own blood results and she was disciplined. You have to have a reason to access patient information. She will be in huge trouble for looking at yours. Even if she denies it to her boss the systems leave a blue print and they will see her log in has looked at them. Please report her. Who else’s information will she be checking. Disgusting

I’m assuming you missed the part it was a shared care issue and impacted her as a member of staff, as such not just had the right to look, but needed to?

Either way this isn’t going to end well for this ex friend who should have thought twice before making you her enemy when she has told you what she did which is a sackable offence

I wonder how many more people’s records she has accessed

You might put that you are willing to turn a blind eye to the incident a year ago but her manager and those above them will certainly not.

You would not have been unreasonable to report her when it happened a year ago. Or shortly after.

You would be very unreasonable to report her now - just because you have fallen out and she’s stabbed you in the back. This would purely be stabbing her in the back in return, an act of revenge. It will likely get her fired. Can you live with that? I couldn’t. Rise above it and be proud to be the better person.

They can but only to the level necessary for the actual work they do. They are not meant to just go trawling through somome's notes and read everything on there. When I worked in mental health there were specific levels of access to patient records.

YANBU

This would be a sackable offence. Its not as simple as asking for her to be blocked in the future, she would be investigated and likely sacked for looking at them previously. Information governance and data security is a hot thing in the NHS at the moment.

Absolutely report her - you can only access medical files when there is a medical need to (e.g. she was directly dealing with your appointment, treating your illness etc). It is a breach of confidentiality to just decide to look at your file to ‘find out what was going on’. Report to the Manager where she works.

And she would have yearly training on it so there’s no excuse she didn’t know this aswell.

If she's snooping at your records she's most likely snooping at others. She knows the rules as anyone with access to that kind of data. There is an audit trail as others have pointed out but it isn't actively being watched across every client all the time. It's looked at after the fact unless there is a flag or restriction on that record. In some settings records can be restricted so that only certain users can access it without seeking authorisation. Don't want to lose your job? Don't do shit like this.

What happens when she does it to another friend or person? Its a basic principle of working in the NHS that you don’t access someone’s medical file unless you absolutely need to. I don’t think she should be allowed to get away with it, even though OP should have reported her at the time.

I’d probably report her. My friend asked me to check when her smear was due as she couldn’t remember and I declined as I couldn’t justify why I’d looked if it was audited. I would happily check if I was planning to take the smear, but I won’t look at records based on a query.

I’d be reporting to every professional body she was a part of. And people wonder why there’s very little respect for the medical profession these days.

Years ago when I worked in insurance someone pulled up Tony Blair’s credit file and was fired for gross misconduct.

its unethical behaviour

Hi OP, anyone employed in a public service capacity (with professional registration or otherwise) is legally bound to access data that is relevant to their role and not for personal interest /enquiries. So this includes admin and reception staff also. All staff in such roles are legally bound to GDPR regulations and any breach of that is extremely serious. If you report this lady, it is highly likely that she will lose her job.

Yes report it. She'll get sacked so it won't be an issue anymore

Yes absolutely report.
This happens to my friend who is a nurse, someone she worked with had accessed both her and her kids records.
It turned out she had been doing it to numerous people she was friendly with/worked with despite being aware she wasn't allowed it and having no reason to look at any of their kids records.
A lot of people were then contacted by the hospital and there were serious repercussions for this woman, understandably.

I don't agree, if this person has done nothing wrong, then she has nothing to worry about, if she has, how many more times has she done this? Through misguided loyalty she wasn't reported in the first place and now the OP has clarity and should report.