The ICO's recent prosecution:-
Medical receptionist prosecuted after
unlawfully accessing patient’s details
http://www.ico.gov.uk/news/latest_news/2013/medical-receptionist-prosecuted-after-unlawfully-accessing-patients-details-12032013.aspx
brought to mind a subject I was intending to document at a later stage
(when more supportive documentation was available) but upon further
reflection that delay appeared as cruel a reflection of the actions
being considered as the acts themselves.
Part of the responsibilities
of Doctors - General Practitioners (GP's) - is to monitor the general
health of the population and report to a central point health matters
of local concern. In that way, by that mechanism, health problems could
be identified and dealt with at an early stage and the general health
of the population would be improved; Society would benefit.
Recently
(The last few years) guidance discussed within the DP health world
regarding an old problem doctors receptionists historically had, in
prioritising cases, was provided with an answer from the data
protection world. Receptionists should give a 14 day waiting period for
patients who did not state what was wrong with them, and hence the
patient would be put in a situation where the only way to get an
appointment in a reasonable time period was to disclose to the
receptionist their health problem allowing the receptionist themselves
to determine the seriousness of that complaint and correctly create an
appointment. The DP discussion oddly centred upon receptionists not
being caught within the relevant medical confidentiality rules.
This
has lead to a situation where, to my knowledge, people with what can be
seen as minor symptoms when discussed over the phone by a patient with
little medical knowledge are given later appointments than medically
required, and people who do not wish to discuss what can be very
serious medical ailments are given 14 day appointments.
An outcome for
things like stomach problems caused by something within the community
is that they are never seen by the GP because by the time the
appointment arrives they are either cured, or in hospital. (Considered
in these circumstances something like the 1854 cholera epidemic in
London could come to a GP’s attention only when he was advised by a
central authority.)
Whilst the difficulties GP's receptionist face in
making appointments are not to be underestimated, and at times may be
particularly difficult, those difficulties used to be the exception
rather than the rule. Today it appears they have been made into a rule,
to the detriment of the health and wellbeing of society generally,
apparently as a result of an age old but irregular difficulty being
given an answer which could be used generically to stop a problem
initially developing.
It may be that the modern call centre staffed by
medically trained people who are subject to the medical codes of
confidentiality will be seen as an answer to this, but that does not
yet remove the dilemmas faced by GP's receptionists at the surgeries
and certainly will not stop those initially minor problems in the
community which can be the root to so many health problems in society.
The point again coming out of this to me is a reiteration of the fact
that providing a definitive answer which allows a difficulty to be
dispensed with by alleviating the need for thought or consideration
within that area presents more difficulties than it solves.
Ian W
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