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.

The person did nothing with the data and the person who's data was breached didnt complain. It's debateable if records even go back 5 years to tell you who accessed it and it make the OP look bad anyway.

In that case - as others have said here - she will have had it hammered into her during her training that what she did was ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE. There are the silly regrettable mistakes we learn from, but this is of a far greater magnitude.

Report it. It is an extreme breach of privacy and confidentiality. I worked for the nhs before and had access to patient records never would I ever do that to someone I'm friends with not even a random patient. She will be investigated and will be fired. It just sounded by your post like a revenge thing because you're now not friends and she has slagged you off to someone else. But this will get back to her as she will probably figure it out soo be prepared for some shit coming your way too because I suppose her losing her job won't be taken lightly.

Do it not for yourself but for everyone else. Our health system is based on the trust and confidence of the public and she has broken that trust. It shows a massive lack of judgment and she should not be handling health data in any way, shape or form.

We don't know if the person did or didn't do anything with the data. You can't make this assumption. All OP knows is that they mentioned they had seen her data to her. They may or may not have done something with it such as telling others about it.

As for "it make the OP look bad anyway", why? There's no stigma in not reporting at the time nor any time limit for doing so. There's no stigma in reporting that your data has been breached either, since it's against GDPR to do that and the "friend" would have been well aware of that. It's not "being a grass" either to report, as the other person has committed an invasion of privacy.

OP gave the benefit of the doubt to someone she thought was a friend at the time and has subsequently realised that they are untrustworthy and doesn't want them looking through any of her data again. They are in the wrong as they were well aware that what they were doing was against GDPR and could lead to dismissal, yet did it anyway.

This really freaks me out actually I have friends who are doctors none of them have treated me but I’d hate to think they were looking at my medical records!

i presume this is the friend you started your other thread about… who has lost items you lent them?

Is it not also criminal as well as sackable. However one problem how are you going to prove it beyond all reasonable doubt. Unless you’ve videotaped the conversation of her admitting that she accessed your records.
Surely, theyre not just going to take your word for it are they. Your EX friend could argue that you’re only saying that to get back at her. The burden of proof is on you it’s not on her to disprove it.

My sibling works for NHS in a clerical role? They are a nightmare for looking at people they knows medical notes, and freely says, by not clicking into the full file, but hovering over it, you can read notes.
It infuriates me, but though my family don't agree this is OK, don't want the goldenchild reported as they'll lose their job and have young kids, it's disgraceful to nose at people's medical notes that have nothing to do with you , so I would seriously consider reporting.

If it was your physical record there is no way of proving she looked.
If it's an electronic record there will be an audit trail showing that she accessed your record and she will disciplined (I would imagine her employment would be terminated - viewing records without clinical reason is a gross misconduct offence).

This is why it needs to be reported, I reckon - this sort of breach undermines the trust we should have in the whole medical profession. You probably can't stop it happening completely, but the general public need to know it gets taken very seriously.

I can't think of any electronic record where that would be possible. Even if it was, the act of searching a person's name without clinical reason is not permitted. In fact I'm pretty sure there are flags that alert IT security if you search your own name/surname.

As a clinician, it's a requirement that you do random checks on the electronic files of the patients on your caseload. Any user name you don't recognise/suspect shouldn't have accessed has to be reported to IT security for investigation.

Grow up

Are you 5? I do like a grass. I like people to grass up people who are snooping around in other people personal and confidential information. I obviously also like people to grass up abusers etc. I don't like cunts who call people grasses. She's not telling tales to teacher ffs.

Huh? The OP states she just wants to make sure someone who doesn't like her hasn't got access to her records. Fair enough would you say?

I worked in Information Governance in the NHS for 2 years! Report report report. This is unprofessional and a very serious breach of her role and needs ro be dealt with.

People like you is why bullies, sex offenders, Child abusers and fraud are allowed to happen. Because people who think like you are weak and spineless. Or because people who think like you indulge in bullying and fraudulent activities and don't want people to reveal your activities.

No reasonable person allows this sort of thing to go on without speaking up.

It was 5 years ago and the OP is only wanting to be a grass in anger. Nobody likes a grass.

im going to hazard a guess

you live alone
you don’t work

correct?

A grass? Dear lord. This is a huge data breach not an episode of Prisoner Cell Block H.

You should have reported her last year

No it was a year ago.

Report her. I work NHS and there is controls of records...she would have to go past so many warnings unless she was working in a role where you are registered as a patient. She has to declare to her boss a relationship with you.

Thanks for all the advice. I still don’t know what to do, I’d forgotten about it until speaking to a mutual friend about it who was there when she said she’d accessed my records and mutual friends said it was awful what she’d done to me when I’ve been a good friend to her including not reporting that incident, now I’m panicking what else she might access. This meant as revenge this is about making sure someone who had made my life incredibly hard can’t access my information legitimately or otherwise, I think I’ll contact them and ask that she not have anything to do with my records at all and not mention the previous access.