ChatterBank0 min ago
Depresion
20 Answers
A FRIEND OF MINE HAS BEEN SUFFERING FROM DEPRESSION SINCE HER SON DIED SHE JOINED A SELF HELP GROUP SUPPOTING PEOPLE WITH MILD DEPRESSION. RECENTLY SHE FOUND OUT THAT ALL HER MEDICAL RECORDS WERE ON THEIR COMPUTER ALONG WITH OTHER MEMBERS OF THE GROUP. SHE IS RATHER WORRIED AS SHE DID NOT GIVE PERMISSION TO ANYONE TO DO SUCH A THING. CAN YOU TELL ME IF THIS IS LEGAL? THE GROUP IS A REGISTERED CHARITY, IF THAT HELPS. THANK YOU IN ANTICIPATION
Answers
So is it just details she gave of her medication rather than full medical records? Is the information being held confidential ly or does she have reason to believe not? She could ask whether the data is held in accordance with Data Protection Act and could ask to see all records kept
20:43 Mon 11th Mar 2013
I agree with FF - first stop an application under the Data Protection Act to see what info is held.
Altho your original posting says 'all her medical records' in fact she doesnt know that - all she heard was two others discussing something.
I had wondered how they had got hold of both the GP records and Hospital records, and now of course I can cease wondering because in fact we dont know. Bit of he said she said, I think. Part of the difficulty is posting for friends.
Altho your original posting says 'all her medical records' in fact she doesnt know that - all she heard was two others discussing something.
I had wondered how they had got hold of both the GP records and Hospital records, and now of course I can cease wondering because in fact we dont know. Bit of he said she said, I think. Part of the difficulty is posting for friends.
If her medical records had been released to a group by her GP, that would be a serious DP breach, and sounds unlikely. The best thing she can do, to clear this up, is to be up front and ask what records about her the group organisers keep on file, and why. She has a right to know what information is being stored about her, and what it could be used for.
There has been discussion with patients at focus groups about how NHS records could be stored so that they could be seen by the patient and shared for the benefit of the patient. Am trying to say this as clearly and carefully as I can so as not to make matters worse. I was apart of running and recording those focus groups. One of the suggestions that kept coming up from patients is to put their NHS record on a memory stick which they could hold....maybe that was what your friend heard.