Breach of doctor/patient confidentiality

sopretty

Hi - I'm in need of advice. I have read the forum rules about asking for legal advice etc., so I hope the following is not in breach of these rules, but please let me know if that is the case. Thanks.

Basically my boyfriend (lets call him John) went to his GP on Monday and had blood tests taken. This doctor told him to return Friday (tomorrow) for the results.

John's mother was attending a different service within the practice today. Boyfriends sister was with her.

Another GP from within the practice called his mother over today and said - 'Oh I have John's results back'. She went on to give John's mother the results of these blood tests, including details of one particular test which was high, gave John's mother and sister details of possible causes for this result, what he should do in the future to keep this particular blood count low and that if he didn't he could go on to develop some disease.

John's mother rang him with this 'diagnosis'.

Now, both John and myself are pretty annoyed. Apart from getting some second-hand information on a medical condition, relayed in laymans terms by his MOTHER, leaving him with not a clue what this result means etc. and also left wondering what this 'mysterious' disease is that he could go on to develop (his mother couldn't remember the name of it), there is what to me a complete and utter breach of doctor/patient confidentiality. The 'results' would not have been ones which John would have shared with either his mother or sister.

My questions are;
Are there laws governing confidentiality specific to Ireland? All I can find online is references to US law.
To whom could you make a complaint about something like this? Is it the Irish Medical Council or the HSE or something?
Was this a breach of confidentiality (to me it is, but I don't know much about the law).
What (if any) action would be taken? The damage is done now so to speak... :mad:

Thanks for any advice.

Phoenix Park

What age is he?

sopretty

He is 30.

Phoenix Park

He's an adult then and he's entitled to his confidentiality.

sopretty

Thanks for your reply. What does he do about it though?

Paulw

You can file a complaint with the medical council.

http://www.medicalcouncil.ie/Professional-Standards/Professional-Conduct-Ethics/

mal1

I'd be more than annoyed if this happened to me. You must live in a small community, not that it can still be excused.

I'm not really in a position to give advice but I reckon I would contact the Irish medical council.

Phoenix Park

See what your boyfriend thinks given a day to cool down. He might be better off just phoning the doctor in question and bollocking him. The doctor is more likely to remember this, and at least this avoidable occurance is then less likely to happen to another unfortunate individual. If he feels more strongly about it then start with the IMC

sopretty

Oh I think I'm the one who needs calming down!

There are a couple of funny things about this though.

On Monday, after coming home from the doctor (Doctor A), John was saying the doctor started discussing his sister - something along the lines of 'your sister can be in bad form a lot - what does be worrying her?'.

The doctor (Doctor who so 'kindly' shared the information with his mum and sister was a different doctor within the practice! Doctor B had no way of knowing John had even mentioned he had been to the doctor to his mother (well not as far as I know anyway!).

Neither doctor has spoken to John about his results. Just 'Doctor Mammy' haha

I rang the practice myself this evening and spoke to Doctor A. He would have been John's GP since childhood. He said 'that shouldn't have happened'. I asked him what he was going to do about it and he said he would discuss this with John. I said that's ok, he's here beside me. He said he'd speak to him in person. He knows John is a pushover I'd say. :mad:

To the poster who asked whether it's a small town - yes - you're spot on!

Thanks very much to the poster who gave me that link. It's very informative and I'm trawling through the info......

Wolfe Tone

This sounds like an old fashioned family doctor tbh.

sopretty

Right well 'John' rang his mother there again to see if he could glean any further information on what this mysterious disease is that he might develop, and it turns out, it was THE NURSE, not another doctor who gave this information out.

I'm even MORE ANNOYED now.

Stupid auld bag.

I was wondering meself about a doctor doing something like this.

Must be a new thing now that nurses are qualified to give prognoses :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

drkpower

This is clearly a breach of confidentiality; although it is equally a breach of confidentiality for the practice (doesnt matter if its the doctor or the nurse or the secretary) to be discussing his care with you (unless he provided explicit consent to the practice to discuss his details with you).

So what to do about it?

Technically he could certainly make a complaint to the Medical Council (or An Bord Altranais) but is it reallly worth it? The worst that would happen to the doc/nurse is soome kind of censure. And its a long drawn out process.

Technically he could sue for damages arising out of that breach of confidentiality but has he suffered any compensatable damage? Probably not. And there have been no court decisions in Ireland for damages in such a cases.

Probably best to make the point strongly to the practice and get an apology. And then move on.

sopretty

Thanks all for advice. I have calmed down.

I have 'John' prepped to give a few stern words about the stress to himself, me and his mother as a result of this nurse who thinks she's a doctor.

He is going in to the GP in the morning to discover what this pernicious illness (he might develop) is! All he went in for was because he couldn't sleep!

His mother and entire family are now convinced he's going on to develop something sinister!

Ach.......... Small towns, small minds.......

fe1ready

Ive heard of a similar incident. A woman was told by her doctor, who was also her son's doctor that her son, a married adult of 35, was gay.

drkpower

thats only a breach of confidentiality if the doc came to learn it through the doc-patient relationship; if he heard it down the pub, thats hunky dory. Not very nice or professional though!

fe1ready

drkpower wrote: »

thats only a breach of confidentiality if the doc came to learn it through the doc-patient relationship; if he heard it down the pub, thats hunky dory. Not very nice or professional though!

No, the doctor found out via his contact with the son. A medical issue arose. The son was not out to anyone but came clean to the doctor. Then all hell broke loose!

drkpower

Fcukin 'ell; its hard to believe that there are doctors out there who act like that.

fe1ready

I also know of a girl who got pregnant and when the locum doctor was talking to her in his office, there was a knock on the door.....the family had sent the parish priest to 'deal' with the issue!
:pac:

drkpower

Tell me you are 70, this was the 1950s and she was sent to a magdalene laundry:eek:

Billiejo

sopretty wrote: »

Thanks all for advice. I have calmed down.

I have 'John' prepped to give a few stern words about the stress to himself, me and his mother as a result of this nurse who thinks she's a doctor.

He is going in to the GP in the morning to discover what this pernicious illness (he might develop) is! All he went in for was because he couldn't sleep!

His mother and entire family are now convinced he's going on to develop something sinister!

Ach.......... Small towns, small minds.......

Pernicious anaemia: Can develop in old age. Vitimin B12 deficiency.
B12 Develops in the gut.
Why not take concerns to Senior GP. To ensure its taken seriously ask the doc to ensure the nurse apologises to you personally.
Its a breach of confidentiality to discuss any patient with another patient. Nurse could be struck off Register for such behaviour.

sopretty

Well I thought I'd update you all since you took the time to help me/ calm me down.

I went into the doctor with 'John' yesterday morning. GP had specifically come to a certain village rather than where he usually would be to meet 'John'.

When we walked in, he said straight off that he'd like to address what went on. He apologised fully and said he would be speaking to the nurse (henceforth known as 'the nurse who thinks she's a doctor').

I let it 'slip' on two occasions during the conversation (had also 'mentioned' this little fact the previous evening on the phone) that my brother is actually a doctor (although not in general practice) and he honestly did seem to take the whole matter seriously.

He then addressed this blood test (I had spoken to my brother thursday evening who said the result wasn't really particularly high for a male specimen - the result was 17.8 and 'normal' ranges up to 17.5). He said his results were pretty much normal. There is nothing wrong with him (doctors words were 'your bloods are essentially normal'). There is no pernicious mysterious disease he is going on to develop.... :rolleyes:

To be on the safe side he will repeat this blood test in a months time.

So, all in all, if the nurse who thinks she's a doctor would just realise that she's just a nurse, has not studied for 10 + years, and does not know-it all, all of this stress and worry could have been avoided.

Thanks for all your advice.

Doctor seemed nice though and seemed to know his stuff.

nd

I have blood tests regularly(every 3 months), and have been getting them for years. I was thinking about this too the other day. Whenever I get blood tests, a week or so later they call with the results. THey tell the reults to whoevber asnswers the phone. In all the time I've been getting the tests I've nvr actually personally got the results. It's always been sister, brother, mother, ect ect.

schemingbohemia

Seems to me that you were breaching confidentiality as well by ringing on behalf of your partner - you can't have it both ways.

The Doctor apologised, case closed.

Off Topic but you could let your partner off the leash a little bit and do some talking and thinking for himself.