Mothers alcohol use shown on medical records

[RegularHumanBartender]

I have just stumbled across this on the Sky news homepage and I am horrified. I have no words! Apologies if there is already a thread, I did scan the first page but I couldn't see one.

Talk about reducing women to sacred incubators! I am struggling to form sentences I am so incensed by this. Not sure if this is even the right place to post.

news.sky.com/story/mothers-alcohol-use-could-soon-be-shown-on-childs-medical-record-prompting-privacy-fears-12073153

You think people who are concerned about medical privacy are most concerned about actions by authorities that are unwarranted?

That’s not the concern. The concern is that people who should know nothing about your lifestyle will be privy to it. They will make unconscious judgments about it (even while they stick to protocol for things that require direct evidence) And that will affect how they treat you. The information may not stay confidential (because protocols and people aren’t perfect). And you will no longer have any control over it. And, perhaps most importantly, your child may have access to that information when they are older.

@BoomBoomsCousin @FlorenceNightshade precisely, it would show any alcohol consumption. It's an egregious assault on women's privacy.

No one has addressed the possible risk to women of having this information recorded on the child records.

The point about redaction is not the point. It's not about requests for full records from the hosp. It's about summary info about a woman's medical etc history being recorded as the starting point on the child's shared electronic records.

I find it mind boggling that the HCPs on here, bar one, are all so cavalier about data protection law and consent basics.

I'm not sure what you want us to say. Personally I will look to see what my professional body advise and then form an informed opinion about what my duty of care is. I have no influence on what HCPs working with children do.

Your utter inability to understand or have any concern about

Data protection law
Consent to sharing of sensitive data
Risk to the mother caused by sharing information

Is baffling to me.

It is how it is and I can't do anything about it so whatever. Is such a cop out.

I find it mind boggling that the HCPs on here, bar one, are all so cavalier about data protection law and consent basics.

I am, sadly, unsurprised that consent is waved off as though irrelevant in this situation. My experience of the NHS around children’s health has been one of complete lack of concern about informed consent. If anything, consent was seen as a barrier to take up. From HVs to in school hearing tests and vaccinations the entire set up is geared towards compliance not consent. It’s a huge shame because the NHS provides a brilliant, comprehensive level of service in so many ways, but it totally fails to spend any time buildIn trust with most mothers or capacity for mothers to be more active in their children’s health care.

@NiceGerbil what’s baffling is your lack of understanding or concern of child protection. Data protection is obviously an area you feel well informed in but your (and other posters) lack of knowledge of how child protection works is blatantly obvious to the HCPs who have tried to explain it on here.

Anyone with first hand, front line child protection experience will tell you that once you’ve been involved in it you would agree that there can never be too much information or intervention available to PROFESSIONALS. Of course children or other family members should not be privy to sensitive and irrelevant (to them) information but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be gathered where necessary for other relevant purposes.

I disagree. When dd was unwell she told a camhs nurse that sometimes she met her friends and drank vodka. The nurse extrapolated this into a report saying dd met her friends every week and got drunk on vodka regularly. This was absolutely not true. Although the report also had the incorrect date, the incorrect GP, the incorrect school, etc, and contained other incorrect information.

To get it rewritten dd and I had to complain formally through PALS to have another, correct report produced. The nurse apologised to the GP for the inconvenience. Not to dd and not to me. The inaccurate report cannot be removed from my daughter's record.

Just imagine some midwife of hv who may be no more competent than that camhs nurse going through dd's notes in 10 years time when she is pg had I not ensured that report was corrected.

The current situation re medical notes, inaccuracy and lack of confidentiality is absolutely terrifying not least when considered against the incompetence of some of those responsible for committing incorrect information onto a permanent record.

Surrey 2016. Totally unacceptable then
Totally unacceptable now.

'. Of course children or other family members should not be privy to sensitive and irrelevant (to them) information'

Which is what the WHOLE thread is about!

So I'm not sure what your point is.

You agree with all the women who are shocked upset and angry.

NO-ONE who has 'explained' why the risk to the woman has never been considered.

No one has explained why it's not standard to advise women that anything and everything in their medical past, highly sensitive information, including information given during pregnancy, can appear on someone else's medical notes

No one has explained how this exemption to data protection law has been obtained

No women on this thread even knew this was possible until they read it here!

This is a genuine scandal.

And the HCPs are all, well that's just how it is

How can we trust the NHS at all with any personal info?