Would social services tell GP? Really worried

[Fieldsofgold5]

Really upset here so hoping someone can help :(

basically a few years ago I had a bit of a dip in my mental health following a pretty awful family situation as a child. I thought I had committed a crime but I hadn’t, I was just completely anxious and had worked myself in a state. I went to the police and they were great and assured me I hadn’t committed a crime but since I was so anxious they advised me they would contact the adult safeguarding team (or something like that). After speaking to the police I felt so so much better (I had just worked myself into a state about nothing basically!) and when the social worker called the next day I was fine. IIRC they referred me to a place in our area for mental health but I don’t think it’s NHS I think it’s just a free local service. I think I maybe did 1 phone call appt and then I was absolutely fine, and my life has been completely normal ever since and no further problems. I didn’t even have mental health problems as such, I had just worked myself into such a frenzy and after speaking to the police I was fine

but recently I was physically unwell (something unrelated) and it got me wondering- will the GP and hospital be able to see the records from social services after the police referred me? It’s a delicate situation but I really do not want anyone else knowing about my family situation or what happened and I’m worried it’s on my NHS medical record or that social services would have told the GP practice or something like that. And now the GP and hospital can see it. I called the social service department who weren’t sure, and I can’t get through to the GP to ask either

does anyone else know anything about this? I’m in Scotland btw if it makes a difference. Thanks so much in advance x

You have the right to see your Medical records.
But no unlikely unless it was medical that the police would contact your GP. Did you visit the hospital at all?

Maybe they can maybe they can’t. Either way it’s highly unlikely to materially affect you in any way.

Can you articulate why it bothers you so much?

No, no hospital visits. Literally went to the police and broke down in tears as I was worried sick I had committed a crime but I hadn’t, I had just had an awful childhood and catastrophised something in my head. They just said they would do an adult safeguarding referral as I had been so so anxious, but after talking to them I was actually fine I think I had just created an awful scenario in my head IYSWIM. I’m guessing they referred urgently though since I was called next day?

Please see screenshot on how to access your records
hope this is reassuring
i think it’s unlikely the GP will have been informed and even if they were cc’d in probably wouldn’t have read it in depth

Honestly not really, not without explaining the particular scenario which I’d rather not do as it’s too upsetting and personal

Thank you very much. I’m going to request a copy of my medical records as a subject access request, just a bit gutted as it’ll take so long but ah well.

sounds a bit stupid but if there was a record of it on the GP then it would be because the police/social worker would have contacted them wouldnt it? In which case, would it show up on my SAR from the GP?

thanks so much x

I mean this with every kindness but you seem to be repeating your history. You have taken a small thing and are working yourself up until it becomes a big deal!
Does it really matter if someone working for the NHS can see what happened with regards to your mental health? If all was well and nothing came of it I don't see the issue with your GP for example being able to see what happened. They will see far worse every day.

honestly I fully appreciate what you’re saying but it’s just because it was so so personal and to do with some awful things that happened to me in my childhood and I don’t want anyone to know about it. It doesn’t bother me day to day anymore but I just want clarity about whether or not other people are aware of it or it’s on my record x

Hi,
I work in the nhs (England) and as part of my role I work closely with social workers. I can’t see social care records on the nhs system I use, unless it is an active involvement/safeguarding cases for children and even then it’s usually just the statutory notes from multi-agency meetings such as child protection conferences.

I very much doubt that the GP can see any police or social care records unless it was an active/ongoing situation where there were ongoing safeguarding concerns and there had been a multi agency meeting. Also, the way the computer system is laid out (in my area) means that usually those sorts of records are in an “attachment” tab and not easily viewed unless you purposely go looking for them. I doubt a GP would have time to review every single record on your medical notes for an unrelated health issue.

I work with children who are in care and I don’t get to access their social care records, but likewise the social worker can’t input or access medical records.

Hope this helps x

Nobody reads your medical records without good justifiable medical reason though- and even then I sincerely doubt they read every paragraph when you go to the gp for tonsillitis or similar. It’s not like a poster on the wall in the waiting room! (Sorry, I’m also not meaning to be snippy - I genuinely think this is one you can -and should- let go, for your own benefit).

Not quite the same thing, but I know when I've seen MH services the GP has been aware that I've seen them and that it related to anxiety but not any of the detail of what was said in sessions. So maybe if a note was added to your GP, it was more of a 'Fieldsofgold was referred to adult safeguarding due to distress and was contacted on same day and signposted to x organisation' type of a thing, rather than all the detail of what it was regarding. But I don't know if that would trigger a note to the GP.

I doubt any notes would include the specifics of the original trauma, they would refer to your present issues.

I work for social services (but in wales), we get several of these sort of contacts from the police every day. Information would only be shared with GP/NHS if the person was at imminent risk of harm and even then the information provided would be very limited. I doubt the GP knows anything about it.

I work in England. If the service you were referred to was commissioned by the NHS it might be your spine record will show you had a one-off appointment with that service. BUT it won't show what the appt was about and unles the referral came from within health (which it didn't) they won't be able to see why the referral was made.

So no one in health services can now see the sensitive matter you went to the police about. In turn the police have a record but that cannot be linked to your health record. And I've no idea how long the social services record lasts for but it doesn't sound like you are still in touch with them anyway.

I work in forensic MH - believe me there is pretty much no coordination btw police/cps/prisons and probation let alone the NHS where I work. I spend loads of times with clients repeating assessments they and I know have been performed already before they came into hospital because I can't access the relevant records...

So yeah whilst no one can promise you the information isn't floating around a database somewhere its vanishingly unlikely your GP will be able to see it.

I work at a GP surgery and deal with all the safeguarding admin.

Its highly unlikely that the police will have sent anything through to your GP. There is a possibility that SS may have sent something through to the GP as they referred you on to a counselling team. Unless you were under 18 and then they may have sent something to your GP. There's a slightly higher chance that the MH team that you saw sent something through to your GP - but this would only be a slightly higher chance if they had your GP details.

If anything was sent through it would have come through as an attachment and depending on how many years ago it will be buried in your correspondence attachments somewhere. The chances of a member of staff coming across it is slim. Again, depending on how many years ago it may have been coded as depression or anxiety on your medical record but coding wasnt great years ago and the tbh, still isnt great with the older GP's. Its very, very unlikely that an admin member of staff will come across the letter as they would have no reason to be looking.

If you do get a copy of your medical notes they will be printed off by an admin member and each page and attachment should be checked by them to ensure that they are all for the correct patient. They should then be checked through again by a GP. You will only get these records once so keep them safe - if you ask for your records again they will only do them from the date the last ones were run until present date.

I really wouldnt be worrying about it. It is so highly unlikely that any admin staff or GP would see any documents that I highly doubt would have been sent and even if you have depression or anxiety coded on your notes it will probably now be under past problems and no one would think anything of it.

Thank you so so much everyone for all the help. I feel so much better now!
im assuming for the same reason that the GP won’t see it, the hospital won’t see it either? Eg when I go to A&E or for consultant appointments for other things? Thanks again!

@Bigcoatlady @yeesh

Just to add - I am in England. NHS Scotland might be completely different.

Are you registered on the NHS app for medication repeat etc;? I can see all my medical history in my app. (Well, maybe not today what with the IT outage 😆)

We don’t have that in Scotland/my health board unfortunately ☹️

The system the GP uses does not talk to the system to the hospital use so they cant see anything from your GP record unless it has been sent to them as correspondence. So even if it is on your GP record the hospital wont be able to see it.

Community care can see your records (for example community hospitals and community podiatrists, physio, etc) but they would only be interested in anything that relates to the problem they are seeing you for.

GP staff are not allowed to randomly scroll through somebodies record for the sake of it. Doing so is a instant dismissal.

I am assuming that Scotland is the same.

It's not going to be on your medical records but it seems history is repeating itself with the making something into a massive thing, so I doubt you'll be happy until you've seen them anyway.

I honestly feel so so much better now. I was going to request my medical notes anyway for my own info about a different condition so I’ll do that, but I definitely feel better now about this. Thank you very much everyone x

Due to date protection information is not shared unless it is needed, so we wouldn’t share with GP or NHS unless really needed (which it wouldn’t be in this case). In my area, the GP wouldn’t even have access to mental health information even if that was NHS as they use a separate recording system and then social services use a different one again. Basically these sorts of things happen all the time, and we wouldn’t record everything you disclosed as it is simply not needed. For example if I received a referral from the police and then spoke to someone who was having a hard time due to issues from their childhood. I would record that I had spoken with them and offered support/signposting to other services etc but I would not record the details of what the person experienced in their childhood.