Health visitor told nursery about a private medical condition I have??? not happy

[nowtheretwo]

Hi there,
At nursery today one of the staff said hows your *** condition? I was taken aback and ask how did you know about that, she just said well your childs health visitor mentioned you have it.

Is that not a breach of Data protection? I have never even told my health visitor about this before, guess she got access to my medical records.

Yes. I would report to the data protection officer of your health visitor and also tell the nursery manager that staff should not have been told that information and now they have been they need to keep.it confidential.

Is this condition something that may impact on your child?

Wow that is not good at all. Definitely report and hopefully that health visitor will be pulled up sharp and firmly reminded of their responsibility to maintain confidentiality and data protection.

Dreadful lapse in confidentiality. You should definitely report. I don't understand, though, why the HV accessed your records in the first place. Why would she have done that? Surely they only need to look at the child's?

Your initial midwife booking notes would have your past medical history. I suspect a summary may go to Health visitor. But your correct just because she knows that she shouldn't share it unless pertinent to your child's safety. I would speak to her and ask why she did.

I would be bloody furious on every level.
Health visitor has breached confidentiality- complain.
Nursery staff should not be mentioning it to you! How very very rude of them! You don’t mention somebody’s health to them unless they themselves have told you. - complain.

I really feel for you.

I would tell nursery staff it's personal and not to discuss it. Sounds like they questioned out of care though.

I would ask the HV why they passed this information on?

The. Once I had all the information I'd report what needed reporting g to relevant authorities.

Would this condition affect your child or his nursery interaction in any way? For example would you struggle to get him there on time,or at all on some days etc?

Basically was it a case of "useful/needed information shared on a need to know basis"?
If it was just gossip or completely irrelevant then complain about HV and inform the nursery manager. Did the staff ask you this in earshot of other people?

Did the health visitor ever tell you they would be communicating with the nursery?

Do you get additional visits?

If it’s a mental health issue they may have had wellbeing concerns but they should have asked your permission first.

Who would I complain too exactly about a data protection breach?

I guess it could be seen as " a case of "useful/needed information shared on a need to know basis"? " but I dont think it should be, if the HV thinks this does this give the HV the right to contact the nursery to tell them this and this means they are not breaking any data protection law? bet they have some loophole? , I mean most people have some medical condition of some sort ie Bunions, Crohn's disease, anxiety etc etc..not saying I have one of those but many things could be interpretated as maybe being affecting a parents getting to the nursery quick if needed for instance maybe getting treatment for a Bunion and cant get there right away or cant walk fast enough to get the bus...I mean lots of medical conditions could, if your imagination is good enough could affect you getting to nursery fast for example.

I just thought my GP file was totally confidential and never have disclosed this particular medical condition to midwife or HV etc as never thought it an issue in being a parent.

I was just totally shocked....it was one of them managers and mentioned it in private to me and by the way your hv mentioned about this medical condition you have. Dont worry we wont tell the other staff though.

No HV NEVER said she was going to tell the nursery this, I didnt even know she knew, but bet theres some loophole she can hide behind.

Ex HV here, no this isn’t right and she should not have disclosed anything without asking you first if it was okay. She should have explained why she thought they needed to know too.

Definitely a case for complaint

DeloresJaneUmbridge thanks, could she still get around Data Protection by saying a case of "useful/needed information shared on a need to know basis"?

Who would I complain to exactly? what authority?

HV should have had atleast the decency to tell me, Im going to tell the nursery about a medical condition that I found in your GP file, just to let you know, you have no choice in the matter though.

If it isn’t relevant to your child I don’t think she can.

She should still have discussed this with you at some point.

The only time I didn’t discuss info sharing was on the occasion that the family were a flight risk and their child would have suffered.

That was ONE occasion out of hundreds of families I dealt with.

Write to Community Matron for Child Health. (Health Visiting)

Even if that’s not the right title it will get to the right person.

I think there are two issues here, establishing how and why the HV has access to the records and on what basis they shared the information, and secondly the nursery not treating that information properly.

Complain to the organisation the HV works for and to the nursery. You can visit the www.ico.org.uk website for advice on the wording you can use to make sure the right people get your complaint / understand your concerns.

You are right Frankenterfer

How has she had access to the GP records.

In some areas GPs can choose to share notes with midwives/HVs with th consent of the patient. The patient must be asked if this is okay though,

Further sharing must be on a need to know basis. And ordinarily the patient should be asked for permission.

Disclaimer...it’s been a few years since I was a HV so some stuff may have changed,

If it isn’t relevant to your child I don’t think she can.

Thanks, but what Im wondering is if the HV thinks its relevant to my child my medical condition that gives her the right share my medical condition with the nursery.

I have no idea why she even accessed my GPs file in the first place. Surely there was a data protection breach right there, unless she could say she has concerns about the parent so that gives her permission to access my GP files without breaking any Data Protection Laws.

Then the 2nd issue was there no data protection breach for the HV to tell the nursery of my medical condition or could she get around data protection laws by saying the nursery needed to know this?

As far as I am aware there isn’t any right to share this without your consent. None at all.

You won’t know without asking though and from what you’ve posted I think the question needs to be asked.

I wonder how I can find out for certain if any data protection laws have been broken in this situation, its a very private and embarrassing to me medical condition and I feel totally shocked.

I guess an investigation would need to be made I presume?

I guess the ico.org.uk/

will be able to tell me if any data protection laws have been broken?

Or if they will have to make a investigation to find out.

I was just totally horrified. I just can not believe it.

Are you in Scotland? The HV is your child's Named Person. The scheme was set up to allow this level of data sharing until it was quashed by the Supreme Court. The HV may still think this is permissible. You need to make a complaint.

What I want to know is if a HV has the right to access my GP files simply by saying she has a concern about a parent and then inform my childs nursery about a medical condition I have without breaking any Data Protection laws simply by saying its relevant to my child. If she can do that then I have no case.

stargirl1701 named person is on hold.

Yes in Scotland, maybe the HV still thinks this.

As far as I’m aware it was trialled and then put on hold to be tweaked.