Received someone else’s doctors letter in the post

[TheShyDeer]

I’ve recently been undergoing some tests at the hospital and have been waiting for a letter from a consultant who has recommended a referral to a different specialist. The letter arrived today with another women’s letter in the envelope. The letter was addressed to her doctors. Im going to call the women’s doctors tomorrow morning and tell them I have received this letter which they should have.

I’ve searched the women on Facebook and want to send her a message to tell her, I actually recognised her from the waiting room. is this strange? I’d like to know if all my details had been sent to a random person (name adress DOB doctors NHS number etc). Obviously once I’ve spoke with her doctors I will send it onto them or however they advise.

YBU- don’t message her
YNBU - message her

I suppose it would be that they cared enough and had taken time out of their day to inform me of what had happened. I’d like to believe someone who was going to act negatively with the information would not put themselves in your life given you are complete strangers.

If you honestly think that people that people with negative intentions wouldn't insert themselves into your life despite being strangers then I'm sorry that's a bit naive. You might like to believe it but it's literally what scammers do isn't it? Equating it to caring about you is quite a stretch - you're putting an intention onto someone that you know nothing about and that's actually very dangerous.

This was my worry and if I wasn’t informed I would raise hell. I have little faith in the system because of how previous issues have been dealt with.

Yes, legally the other patient and the ICO must be informed of the data breach regarding their records.
If you are concerned that this will be swept under the carpet then I'd be inclined to inform the ICO direct.

I had this a couple of years ago, I moved back to Germany and asked my GP practice for a copy of my records.
As I had consented, they came by email, started reading and suddenly thought "Hang on a minute, that does not sound right". Went back to the top of the page only to find I had received another patients record. Same family name, but different first name, DOB and address.
I immediately informed the GP practice and, after not receiving a response, the ICO.
GP said "they had dealt with matters appropriately" and the ICO was happy that the issue had been "properly addressed".
For my part, I'm not so confident this was really the case - but what can I do. I only hope, they really contacted the other patient to let her know.

We had a letter and some pre-op meds posted out to us the other day, somehow they had the wrong address for this lady but the letter had all her other information on it. The lady at the hospital was very grateful when I called to say it had been sent in error but I highly doubt they’ll tell her they cocked up.

The same thing happened to me once, getting another patient’s letter in my envelope. As the other patient lived quite close to me, I took it to her house and handed it over, explaining how I came by it.

I maybe haven’t worded it correctly and I am only talking about this situation and not general life. If I received a message saying they had my letter I would thank them for letting me know and that would be it. I would then go to my GP/hospital and deal with it accordingly.

maybe I am just naive but with all the information that’s on the letter if I was going to use it negatively I definitely wouldn’t be waving myself in front of the person. But then again on reflection from the responses I would be informed anyway and the person has still “cared” enough to inform the hospital/GP that this has happened. Again taking time out of their day to make sure it is dealt with appropriately. If the information was in the “wrong” persons hands they wouldn’t do that either. The only difference is I can’t put a face to them (I am a very visual person) and personally thank them for taking their time to try and stop from maybe ended up in the wrong persons hands.

I wouldn't message her personally. I would just let the doctors know. I would be upset if I knew my private medical information had been sent to someone else, and finding out about it from the person who had it would only make me feel worse, particularly if it was something I didn't want to broadcast.
Mistakes do happen though. I once received someone's power of attorney information in the post. I contacted the relevant authority and they just said to send it back, but I forgot. Turned out to be a neighbour, but I didn't know who they were at the time.

I would also want to know OP, and I wouldn’t trust the doctor or hospital to tell her

They’re private, but they’re also just test results- what are you going to do with them even if you do have negative intentions?!

I agree that not being able to sleep because another person saw your test results is hugely over anxious and must impact your life in all sorts of ways.

it’s not a big deal, the hospital / doctors will report it and follow a short process. It’s just one of those things. I don’t know why the introduction of GDPR made everyone think they were suddenly data police.

They will use the limited information they have to assume legitimacy as an NHS body and get you to disclose further details because they rely on you thinking: "Oh they know my NHS number, DOB and address, so they must be the real deal": https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/watch-out-for-fake-nhs-cold-calls-a33Vv5D124xJ

And just to hammer the point home - spear-phishing: https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/spear-phishing-are-scammers-targeting-you-aniez8I9I22s

That’s not related to someone receiving your test results by mistake.

It could very well be - they have some of your personal information and they use it to get more personal information out of you - it literally says it in the article.

You can just contact the surgery and let them know, but I believe you can also report a data breach online without you contacting the woman and worrying her. Likewise, I’d put it in an email to the surgery so it’s in writing, which should give them extra motivation to report themselves for a data breach and therefore will mean they have to contact her. She can then choose how she plays it with the surgery.

You are describing a scam that has nothing to do with someone receiving the wrong letter. You’re connection unrelated things

I'm not at all. If the person who receives it isn't a decent person then of course this can happen.

of course you dont message her
you can legitimately complain though

“They will”

no, a member of the public randomly receiving the wrong test results won’t somehow slot into a international organised crime ring and start operating a well known scam.

Yes I said international organised crime ring. That is what I said.

I mean why does GDPR even exist then if not to stop information falling into the wrong hands?

I give up trying to help people on this thread, I give up raising awareness.

Do you realise who runs scams? You don’t think it’s miss smith the baddie from number 54 who received the wrong letter and just decides to give it a go?

btw- I don’t think you need to help, I don’t think you have the expertise really?

Thanks for your unnecessary rudeness that you edited to add in. What a nice human being you are.

I agree with you. Id want to know

This happened to me. I wasn’t even waiting for correspondence from the hospital either- just randomly got a letter from a hospital four hours away with the details of a man’s fractured arm. We had the exact same date of birth so I’m assuming there was some mix up on a database somewhere. Not good