HSE lost my documents.

0din

Good evening all,

I was recently diagnosed with a semi-serious illness which I won't get into the details of here (not completely relevant to my immediate issue.) Upon request by my GP, I was sent to hospital X (I'm reluctant to be specific as to which hospital.)

I had been seen by a doctor in the hospital and then later by a nurse who took samples of my blood for testing. She also filled in some documentation, on paper. Before I left, I was told I would hear from either them or my GP within the next 3 weeks.

2 months had passed, so I contacted the hospital directly by phone a few days ago. I identified myself and gave them details of the purpose of my previous visit there, the name of the doctor I saw and the date which I was there.

I was put on hold for maybe 10 minutes until a different woman picked up the phone and answered all of my questions. To keep this post short, here is the result of the phone conversation:

1) There is no record of me having attended the hospital on that date, either on paper or on their computer system.
2) There are no samples of blood tied to my name and no evidence that they were ever in possession of any.

I'm a little angry at this turn of events, but more worried than anything. I'm not going to die soon or anything, but where did my blood samples and all the documentation the nurse took down go to? I haven't spoken to my GP about this yet, but I certainly will in the morning! Due to the nature of the illness, I am confident the doctor who saw me will definitely remember my last visit (it's only been 2 months.) Is this type of bad practice borderline illegal? Is it a common occurrence in the HSE? Should I be worried that files containing my personal information could possibly have been stolen? What would you do?

I'm looking for your thoughts and possibly peace of mind more than anything from this post.

Thank you in advance! boards.ie

Delancey

I think you would do better posting this in the Health Sciences forum.

Victor

0din wrote: »

Should I be worried that files containing my personal information could possibly have been stolen?

Realisticly, I suspect what happeend was that your file was inadvertently put into someone else's file and hence is difficult to find. Alternatively, it is possible that they have mis-named the file - are there any common varients of your name?

They should check every file that was used by that department on that day. They should also check the numbering of any new files opened that day and see if there is a missing number. that, at least might be trackable to the bloos samples.

Talk to your GP as they may have been sent correspondence.