Opening someone's NHS letter

[Motherinneed48373783]

So I have recently moved house. I changed doctors and address before I moved. A letter from the NHS was sent to my old address for my daughter and I was informed that the owners opened up the letter. She states that she is a nurse. I know that it is illegal to open up mail which is not in your name. Does this count for nurses and NHS letters? I want to confront her about it, but can't find anywhere on the Internet to state if a nurse is allowed to do this or not?
Any help would be much appreciated

No of course she's not allowed to open the letter even as a nurse.
That said was there a return address on the envelope? If there was she is very out of order.
What you can do about though I'm not sure

Blimey I’d be reporting that to the NMC

Did she open the letter and inform you of the appointment, which you are now aware of, which you would not have been if she hadn’t opened it. Had this really caused you any inconvenience or prompted you to change your contact details? Is this really a major issue as I am sure you have now notified your Gp and changed your address.

I accidentally opened a bank letter for a previous occupant today, it's easy done. I didn't look at the front, lived here 5 years no reason to expect anyone else's post would be delivered. I wouldn't worry about it personally.

She might have been expecting her pay rise letter, payslip pension statement etc from the NHS. Dud you not arrange mail forwarding with the royal mail?

I don’t think the act of opening someone’s mail is illegal. I think it’s the intent to do something with it that is.

It's not illegal to open letters addressed to somebody else, unless you do it with malicious intent. It is likely to be illegal.to use the information in the letter, except to get it to the intended recipient or inform the sender it has been misadressed.

A nurse should know better than to.open something likely to contain medical info - although may have opened it in error having not checked the name.

I haven't received the letter back yet, as apparently they have now misplaced it. Going over again tomorrow to try again. So I'm not sure if there is a return address on it. The waynit was worded, it was done with intent. I know that it says online that you can report them, however I don't know what good that will do. I'm only annoyed about the situation because my daughter is being diagnosed with Autism and I'm not comfortable with others opening her mail as there is a lot of private information in them about her. Thank you for your help guys!

I have done this accidentally before - ripping through a pile of mail on return from holiday. Apologized profusely and did not read on when I realized what had happened. If I see it is not for me I put it in the post with return to sender on.

I know that it is illegal to open up mail which is not in your name.

It’s not illegal. It’s only illegal if there is intent to defraud.

What way was it worded? Is it possible you've misconstrued it?

You haven’t answered why it went to an old address?

Did you not re-direct your mail or inform the hospital/NHS service of your new address?

This and stop being a dickhead. She’s obviously let you know via the surgery. Stop blaming other people for your inability to adult and arrange a redirection via Royal Mail. Jeez, what’s wrong with people these days.

How do you know she opened it? If she did it's illegal. But there is some sort of clause that if you have genuine concern it's something really important or some sort of fraud then you can open it to try and forward it on to the sender or to help locate the genuine recipient.
The fact she's a nurse might mean if she explains she was worried your medical records would not be going to you, hence opening it. If they opened it in malice surely they'd throw it away and you'd not find out?
So it is kind of a grey area if she can say she was doing it to try and reunite this letter with you.

I opened someone's Amazon parcel a while back. It was delivered to me by mistake, and I was expecting a delivery. It wasn't till it was open and I thought, "this isn't what I ordered!" that I looked at the address info and saw it was for no. 6, not 16. I just took it round and spologused, and they were grateful because they'd had a message to say their parcel was delivered and they'd seen no sign of it.

I live alone - I don't always read the name on the front, especially if it's clearly from someone I have dealings with, like the council or NHS. I either pop it round like the parcel, or put it back in the postbox, sometimes with an apology note. I think most cases like this aren't malintent, especially if they try to let you know.

I'd set up a redirect though, and make sure my address got updated with the relevant department.

I was informed that the owners opened up the letter. She states that she is a nurse

How did this conversation go? Did she open it accidentally, but then let you know that her job as a nurse means that she understands confidentiality, so you needn't worry that she'd share anything?

That's why the royal mail created redirect.
So easy to set up and sorts out people having to be bothered by unorganised people

She's a better person than me.
I opened our old owners mail. Realised it wasn't ours and binned it.
And just kept binning it.

I got a letter sent to my address with a different name. It had NHS written on it. I was SO confused how it had MY address and a different name as my house was brand new. So I opened it thinking well if its from the NHS it might be important and how else can I contact them and say look you have sent this to the wrong person.

Anyway I called the NHS and they said don't worry we will resend it. I was still very confused as how would that then reach them. I said shall I keep it or not. They said no.

I then got a knock on my door from an irate next door neighbour asking for the letter. I said I didn't have the letter as they told me not to keep it. They said can you let me know in future if you get my post.
.
I was still highly confused as my brain is slow and I couldn't work out how it was my neighbours letter and how I was meant to know that. It had my flat number on it. I didn't tell her that as my brain was still trying to work it out.

Anyway it was from the oncology department and I think she went on to have treatment.

If I hadn't phoned them maybe she would have been waiting for a letter, who knows.

If you move house surely you would have your post forwarded on?

I'm assuming she opened it by mistake. And rather than resealing it and putting it back in postbox for return to sender she informed you instead. Was it for an appointment that might have been missed because it was returned?

Don't report someone for trying to be helpful because next time she will bin it all. Stop being a cheapskate and set up a redirect. You caused this problem.

I also wondered why her being a nurse was mentioned. Did she mean that she was expecting a letter from NHS due to this ?
If yes, it does sound reasonable for me e.g I’ve once opened a letter addressed to a previous occupier as an envelope looked exactly as the one I regularly receive from a local hospital. I didn’t look at the name, it was in the pile of other letters for me and I just opened it.

My guess is she has seen the nhs logo on the envelope and thought work related, if she had opened it purposely why would she even tell you? She could off binned it and said nothing.

Hmmmm.... It makes you wonder why a BANK letter is coming to your house for someone FIVE YEARS after they moved!!! Be on your guard for more. And take them to the bank in question and tell them 'no-one of that name lives here!'

Hmmmm.... It makes you wonder why a BANK letter is coming to your house for someone FIVE YEARS after they moved!!! Be on your guard for more. And take them to the bank in question and tell them 'no-one of that name lives here!'