You could have written and the sister could still have opened the letter.
Brenda Scourfield
Team Leader,
I.T.
Pembrokeshire County Council,
County Hall,
Haverfordwest.
SA61 1TP
01437 775380
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Hughes2 John (RJ6)
MHC-TR Manager
Sent: 03 May 2007 09:30
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] FW: [data-protection] Hospital Scenario
In which case can you suggest how else we could have handled it? The
patient is due in the next day for an appointment that has had to be
changed at short notice. The home phone number is the only number we
have and we had to do what we could to prevent her from coming into the
hospital and being turned away. There was not enough time to write, and
the only other alternative was to do nothing.
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Nigel Roberts
Sent: 03 May 2007 09:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [data-protection] Hospital Scenario
Actually while Tim's analysis is rational, it is mistaken.
You need to start from the basis that the fact this person has contacted
this particular medical service as 'sensitive personal data'. Would
anyone object to that idea?
Secondly, it is therefore expected that employees of medical facilities
will act with discretion.
Thirdly, the provision TO A THIRD PARTY of a number which, when answered
in the normal way, identifies not only that it is a medical facility,
but the type of medical facility, discloses sensitive data unfairly. The
patient was entirely right to complain of a breach of medical
confidentiality, IMO.
The mistake was not in the way the phone was answered, but in leaving an
identifiable number. The hospital should have simply left no message and
tried again, if that was possible. (And not, if not).
Run the scenario again with "GUM/STD Clinic" instead of "Pregnancy
Clinic" and see if you think the actions of the medical staff were
correct.
Tim Turner wrote:
> I completely disagree.
>
> The patient has given a contact number to the hospital for them to use
> for purposes like the making of appointments. While it would be
> absolutely unfair for the hospital to reveal proactively any personal
> information, they didn't actually do this. They left a name and a
> number and answered the phone in exactly the way that any patient
> would expect. Unless we have to have a situation where hospital
> departments answer the phone with "yeah?", how can these problems
> realistically be avoided? You can't have public service organisations
> not identifying themselves when they answer the phone
> - if the patient dials the wrong number, and is used to *not* hearing
the
> hospital identify themselves, they might divulge their own data to
someone
> else.
>
> If a patient wants their confidentiality protected in "in every way
> possible", they should give the hospital a mobile number. The problem
> here is not the action of the hospital, which is reasonable. Here you
> have people keeping secrets from their families, and family members
> checking up on them
> - it's their problem, into which the hospital has inadvertently been
dragged
> through no real fault of theirs. I don't think it's reasonable to
impose a
> bureaucratic system which might confuse and intimidate other patients
just
> to keep up with a family's inability to talk to one another. This does
not
> in any way justify a disclosure, but that isn't what happened.
>
> Tim Turner
> Data Protection / FOI officer
> Legal and Property Services
> Wigan Council
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ekin Caglar
> Sent: Wed 02 May 2007 16:21
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [data-protection] Hospital Scenario
>
> I was visiting my parents and they stepped out of the house for a
> couple of hours. The phone rang. I didn't pick it up and let the
> answering machine take it. The caller was a doctor, saying he "had the
> results of the operation and it was successful". That's when and how I
> found out that my mother had cancer!
>
> So John, although you have avoided the first obvious mistake, which is
> to leave sensitive personal data on an answering machine or with a
> "family member", I think your processes and procedures should have
> followed through and protected the patient's confidentiality in every
> way possible. I agree with Tim's point that the direct / unlisted
> number should have been answered accordingly.
>
> Ekin
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tim Trent
> Sent: 02 May 2007 15:36
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [data-protection] Hospital Scenario
>
> Possibly the only error might be if this is not recorded as a
> procedure to follow. Procedures, in general, are a defence against
> accusations like this.
>
> Where the department might be controversial it would also be an idea,
> but not mandatory, for a unique number to be given out in this set of
> circumstances where the phone is answered "hello" and then you wait to
> hear who is wanted, and answer "suitably"
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Hughes2 John
> (RJ6) MHC-TR Manager
> Sent: 02 May 2007 15:20
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [data-protection] Hospital Scenario
>
> Nothing hypothetical about this. It happened at our acute Trust
> recently.
>
> A nurse needed to contact a patient urgently to alter the time of her
> appointment for a clinic at the hospital the following day, so she
> phoned the only contact number we have, her home number. The patient
> wasn't at home so the nurse left a message with a family member to
> phone back. She said it was a personal call, left only a first name
> and a phone number - no mention of hospital, clinic or any hint of
> what the call was about. The number given was a direct line to the
> department. For some reason the family member then took it on herself
> to phone the number and when someone answered she heard "Early
> Pregnancy Unit, how can I help you". The cat was out of the bag and
> the next call they received was a very angry patient accusing us of
> breaching confidentiality by telling her sister that she was pregnant.
>
> Did we do anything wrong?
>
> John Hughes
> Data Protection Officer
> Mayday Healthcare NHS Trust
>
>
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