Should I complain after a nurse shared my 16-year-old's medical details?

[Midglet]

My 16yr old had an incident this week that required medical intervention. They didn’t want people, even immediate family and close relatives, to know until they had underwent the operation and we respected those wishes. However a theatre nurse recognised their name and before my child was even under anaesthetic, the nurse had texted a distant relative of ours and divulged that not only was our child in for an operation , but the nature of such. The child was in theatre for four hours but within twenty mins of them being taken in the distant relative , who doesn’t have our mobile numbers, then started calling the hospital demanding details of our child’s prognosis and treatment. Thankfully we had been tipped off very quickly as the relative started contacting other family members ( who themselves weren’t aware of the situation until they themselves contacted us to see what was happening) and were able to request staff to refrain from divulging such. After several failed attempts the relative then turned up at the hospital and demanded access to our child, by which point they were out of surgery. The ward staff asked our 16 yr old ( with us present) if they would like the relative to gain access and our child immediately burst into tears with the thought …the relative is particularly difficult at the best of times and the children try to avoid all contact by their own choice . Thankfully again the staff were able to refuse the relative entry into the ward (Although our child is 16 and should have been in the adult wards a lack of beds had resulted in them being housed in the children’s ward with better security) . Anyway I am sitting stewing about the actions of this initial theatre nurse divulging private medical information to a third party . I know this is a huge breach of confidence and I hope such would be a disciplinary if I was to raise a complaint but I don’t know if I should . The nurse is a friend of the relative hence why she reached out and my family are divided as whether to take action as it will cause trouble within the wider family. Hubby thinks I should just forget it to keep the peace but I think the theatre nurse should be made aware her actions were totally unacceptable. I’ve never complained about anything before . Your thoughts would be appreciated !

Please do not let this insanity happen again.
Speaking as a NHS employee this is an enormously serious breach of your young persons confidentiality and I cannot imagine how distressing this whole situation was for them and you as a family.
Every health professional undergoes mandatory training about this, there is absolutely zero excuse for this behaviour.
This persons actions are disgraceful as nd they could allow serious harm to a patient in their care, imagine disclosing information to a dangerous predatory abuser?? This is never something to allow slip under the carpet and pretend it hasn’t happened. Let your YP see you are on their team.
I’m so sorry this happened and you are made feel bad about doing the right thing. Your husband needs to give his head a wobble.
sending love and strength, hope your YP is recovering well

I think you should report this nurse. There is no ambiguity here- your 16 year old was clear about their wishes and they were disregarded. You then had to damage control at the hospital due to relatives phoning and turning up. This is all happening at a stressful time for you whilst you child is under general anaesthetic. I also think that your child needs to have full confidence in the NHS and this will have undermined their experience. Would your child trust NHS staff again?
please report.
I’m sorry this has happened.

shouldnt need to even ask or give the additional background. This is gross misconduct

I’m a nurse manager.

This is gross misconduct. It must be reported.

It seems even worse as the theatre nurse didn’t even breach confidentiality carelessly, she PROACTIVELY chose to do so.

Please ensure you act on this, even though you may feel conflicted as family relationships are complicated. This nurse has breached more than one aspect of her Code of Conduct and must be investigated and disciplined. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone so professionally negligent has made other errors in practice.

I am the most laid back/don’t like a fuss person but this is AWFUL and I’d be going right to the top about this and quite honestly if she lost her job I’d be ok with that for such a breach of trust. I imagine this isn’t the first time and she needs telling and whatever that ends up as is entirely her own fault. I’m so sorry for your daughter and I hope she’s recovering well.

NHS Clinician here.

Yes. If you feel you can then please do complain. We have very clear training on this and what the nurse did was gross misconduct. They need to learn. And we all need to be able to trust that our information is confidential. How else can we feel ok about sharing personal and vulnerable information.

I am so sorry this happened. It absolutely should not have and will be taken very seriously. As it should.

If there are repercussions in terms of her career and family relationships then that will ALL be on her head. You will be doing the right thing by reporting but it will also be completely understandable if you do t feel able to or if your DC doesn’t want to.

And so they should, surely..?

Totally unacceptable, and the nurse knows this. Report without a second thought

Just adding to the chorus - 100% complain. It’s absolutely disgusting- she should be sacked. And your 16 yr old will see that you are sticking up for her. Hope she is feeling better btw.

I worked at a hospital in the health records dept for over forty years. I could fill several books with intimate medical details about friends, neighbours or acquaintances, who were patients, but we all (staff) knew it was more than our life is worth to reveal ANY of this. I would report this person.

Obviously, yes!

This x 100. I worked in mental health (actute wards and community) for over 12 years and every single year we had to do Information Governance training and had to pass at a minimum of 80% correct . A whole day of my induction was taken up with this and GDPR training. Every keystroke on the electronic notes system was tracked. Patient confidentiality was rightly at the centre of all our work. I twice reported colleagues one of whom was a manager, for breaches, these things are taken very seriously as they should be.

Obviously report, but hopefully it has already been flagged up at the hospital when it became apparent that the family member knew about your child because of the nurse's actions.
It's just bizarre that a medical professional's first thought would be to contact a friend that they knew was distantly related to a patient, and even more strange that a distant relative would then turn up at the hospital - is it actually an estranged close relative?

Complain , they probably have done this before or will again . It needs to be brought up
Just think if it was a victim of dv and she gave this info to someone

@Manxexile I imagine that either the relatives calling OP because the person the nurse called didn’t have OP’s or her child’s numbers told them when they rang. The fact that they didn’t have these numbers should have been telling enough. OP may have also spoken to the relative when they stormed up to the hospital, or maybe someone asked when they were bombarding the hospital with phone calls demanding information. (If I had received phone calls like this at my work, I would have definitely tried to find out who let the cat out of the bag.)

You need to report this incident as it is gross misconduct and a sackable offence.

This is wholly unacceptable behaviour and needs to be addressed. It isn’t your fault, it is the fault of the theatre nurse, and they deserve all they get as a result. It is a criminal act under GDPR.

What if this child was needing to remain anonymous due to protection/abuse/adoption reasons!

Sackable offence. I’m amazed they thought they could do this.

I’m so sorry your child had to experience this.

This is absolutely appalling behaviour and I would report it the hospital and the NMC.

Just saying the same as everyone else. Report report report.

At the risk of overwhelming you with messages, you must absolutely report this. This is outrageous behaviour from the nurse. She is not a safe person to be doing the job she is.

Why is a distant relative concerned about your child? Seems a bit bat shit. I would report.

This is awful and the authorities need to know.

"A nurse who wrongfully discloses a patient’s condition to an unauthorized third party faces severe disciplinary, regulatory, and legal consequences, ranging from termination of employment to criminal prosecution."

Absolutely 100% you should report it.

You must complain
You will probably discover this person has already accessed your family's medical records at some point . This has happened to me and my family
You must protect yourself and your child
This is a sackable offense and a criminal act . NHS require mandatory training for all staff on GDPR . Notes are protected by pop ups on the screen reminding staff there must be clinical reasons to access medical records. Save the profession , get rid of the bad actors .
Hope your child is well again soon 🔜

Your child didn’t want anyone to know. That was THEIR wish - so yes, complain. The patient was ignored. Not simply you as the parent, but your daughter.