Patient confidentiality

[jenk1]

Following on from yesterdays thread.

LEA have written to a psychiatrist that saw DS in Jan for 45 mins and asked her in her opinion did DS have AS.
She has written back saying NO

Now we,ve never had a letter from her stating this and were under the impression that DS asessment had stopped cos he,s out of school-which is what she told us at the time.

Im furious.

The LEA have written asking about M,s medical state without gaining our permission and the Psych has told them confidential information without deeming it important enough to share it with us as his parents OR ask our permission.

I have written a letter to the consultant stating that we would like a copy of the letter that she has seen fit to send the LEA but not us but i want to take it further, she has broken patient confidentiality and so has the LEA in asking for something without our permission.

Im fuming, its a shame cos its overshadowed the good news of them agreeing to issue DS with a statement

are you going to complain. sounds out of order.

i dont know if i have grounds to tbh.
I am surprised that they have asked this psychiatrist for her opinion on M,s needs as she hasnt seen him since Jan 06.
In the letter sent to us telling us that they were going to asess M this psychaitrist was not on the list of people that they said they were going to ask an opinion.
I think it was just to prove a point to us that they asked her, BUT she surely shouldnt be saying to LEA what her dx is when she hasnt given us a letter saying anything about M,s problems and in fact my mum reminded me today that this DR couldnt wait to get rid of M, she remembers her saying to put him on prozac which we were pretty disgusted with at the time.
LEA dont like it that we have got a 2nd opinion with our psych and that he is an expert and well known, to me its like they are stirring it.

Jenk, NHS staff arent supposed to share any information with other agencies unless you agree to it - they should give you a form to sign if you agree to them doing this. They should also not pass on info that they havent discussed with you first, ie other people should not hear a diagnosis (or non diagnosis) before you. I would complain.

thanks fubsy, im still confused, i got my SEN code of practice out and in it LEA,s can ask the named medical officer for health information, now DS medical officer was a paediatrician, the letter sent to us didnt mention the CAMHS psychiatrist being involved and she only saw him for 45 mins back in Jan.

LEA are not accepting our private dx and say they have a report from this psychiatrist stating that DS does not have AS.

Why wont they accept the private diagnosis? ATEOTD its no good someone saying your son doesnt have something if he is showing all the signs of it. They still have to support him in school! Im sorry you are having a crap time. For all that we are able to get second opinions, medical people get very upset if they feel their opinion is being contradicted. A diagnosis made on the basis of one short consultation nearly a year ago would be worthless. if I was asked for a statement report on someone I hadnt seen for that long I would either refuse if i was no longer seeing them, or go and reassess them.

They dont like our psych cos they know that since he has been involved with DS, he has really helped us and he has provided enough in his report for the asessment that its virtually impossible for them to admit that Ds doesnt need an asessment.

He has also shut them up on more than one occasion when they have tried to pull the wool over our eyes in meetings (he,s IPSEA trained) and they dont like it.

Our psych is writing to the psychiatrist to ask her how she can say that DS doesnt have AS based on a 45 min session when her colleague spent many months observing DS and was convinced that he does, BUT her colleague wont stand up against the psychiatrist.

The psych that saw DS back in Jan is very very arrogant and thinks she,s God, she obviousley has taken offence to us getting a 2nd opinion.

Do you have a paediatrician or any other professionals that know you and your son well? Could you discuss this with your GP? Its ridiculous, if some professionals think he needs support, then he does, and surely education then have to prove that he does not need support in school?

It has gotten worse, last week our psych got a letter from the LEA saying that they had been in touch with the NAS and "had him checked out".

Since then his advertisement has been taken off the NAS website.

Now it could be a coincidence but i think not, this LEA will stoop to anything when it comes to money and they are obviously trying to discredit our psychologist.

He is getting in touch with the NAS to see whats going on.

Its a good thing that they are issuing a statement for M so they have obviously listened to something that the professionals have been saying.