Is this an ico matter?

[OperationMincemeatt]

Background. I have stage 4 melanoma and I need to have egg harvesting asap before my surgery.

My psychiatrist’s secretary rang me today to query a letter they received from my GP.

Basically instead of sending my referral for ivf (detailing my cancer and why I need to start injections immediately as I want to do it before having mega surgery and immunotherapy..) to my medical oncologist. They’ve sent the referral and accompanying letter to my private psychiatrist (I have no polar).

So no referral for jvf and the secretary of my psychiatrist now knows that I’m desperate to be a parent, it’s a very descriptive letter and I feel so odd that my personal Information has been sent to not only the wrong person but also a health care professional I pay for.

The lady who rang me about it read out the letter to me and it is very clear that time is not on my side with needing to start treatment etc.

I spoke to the practice manager of my GP surgery and she said that because it was another health care department that also has access to my medical records it’s not a breach of gdpr or confidentiality.

aibu to really want to complain? I am a Dr and I know exactly how much stress the nhs is under. However this just isn’t acceptable to me.

I was always going to tell my psychiatrist that I needed ivf because I need a lot of psychiatric input and probably a referral to perinatal mental health because of my bipolar, I’m not an idiot but I also would have preferred it to be on my terms. Not only because I trust my team but also I’m so far away from ivf it’s ridiculous. I need to have surgery on a tumour near my liver and have immunotherapy.

I’m very lucky that melanoma is very amenable to immunotherapy and if im a ‘good responder’ I will likely be termed as a chronic patient.

AIBU to be really upset it went to the wrong person, they saw really personal information about me and I had to listen to the letter?

YANBU to feel very upset. It was clearly an accident, though, and I don't think it's in anyone's interest to try and get a head on a block. I'm sorry you're going through so much just now - wishing you a happy resolution to everything.

Btw, my GP texted me someone else's diagnosis! They don't even text me my own!
These things do happen.

Bloody hell! What did they say when you told th?

Yeah I know they happen I work in the system, I just want an apology for Sending the referral
to my private psychiatrist instead of the mhs oncologist 🤦‍♀️

Im
probably being very ott about It, im angry I need to
do egg collection in the first place but I’m putting off cancer treatment to do this.

Maybe I’m overreacting

Heh, they said thanks for letting us know. The patient has been advised of his diagnosis. Hope you weren't inconvenienced.

I suppose they couldn't directly say "sorry" in case I wanted to haul them before some governing body or other. I fully understand why you want an apology, though!

As you work with the system, do you know of some way to get acknowledgement of the cock-up without landing them in an admission of guilt scenario?

More to the point, have they now sent your referral to the right person??

People who work for the NHS are human beings. If anyone in any other industry did this, you'd just apologise and not give it another thought. I appreciate that this is more personal but it doesn't make what's happened any less of a big standard human error.

If you complain, there are system obligations to spend time and money investigating. Think about what the outcome will be. Are you happy that the NHS is spending time and money on a human error instead of protecting our health?