Being sent to company GP and medical records will be disclosed without consent

LegacyUser

Hi there,

I am not from Ireland and moved here two and half years ago. Currently I work in an international company (not american one).

Some basic information about my situation: 34+weeks pregnant, having complication of pregnancy, being written off work for 3 weeks now and will start maternity leave in mid July.

The current GP I am now visiting is just cross where I live, not the one I used to visit as body gets heavier and me myself don't drive a car. Public transportation to my old GP is not so convenient (6 km away from where I live). But the current GP has been listed in blocked list within company and rumor says it HR won't accept Medical Cert coming from them.

Before I visited this current GP, I have asked for permission from HR that in my circumstances, it makes no sense to ask me to travel so far for seeing GP. HR has agreed to it. In fact, due to complication of pregnancy, I only get antenatal care monthly in Coombe Hospital, never visit GP for it.

I have been written off work for 3 weeks now due to pregnancy issues (reduced fetal movement, etc) and HR just asked me to visit company GP yesterday. First of all, I don't know what that means (do they have doubts of my condition ?) and I may refuse this request (couldn't find info in company's policy?) ? In the end I went to company GP as I have nothing to hide.

What worries me that HR wrote me as soon as they receive a report from company GP, they will contact me. How could company GP just send out my medical data to HR without asking consent ? May I ask HR to send a copy of it to me as I do want to know what kind of info they are holding ? Is it a general practice in Ireland to even ask late stage pregnant woman to see company GP ? I am paying for visit of current GP as I am not registered with them previously and they just sent out a registration form to HSE to ensure I am entitled to free visit for pregnancy. If I knew the medical cert coming from them won't be accepted ?! by HR, I rather travel to visit my old one so that I don't have to pay for visit.

I just want to know what is employee's obligation and what is my right in this case in Ireland. I don't feel right about my medical records being disclosed and the way I have been treated. Did the company violent any employment laws ?

Really want to know where I am standing and what further reasonable action I could take.

Thanks in advance.

bobbysands81

Talk to the Doctor and ensure your medical records remain private. My understanding is that your medical records cannot be passed from this Doctor to your HR without your permission due to Data Protection reasons.

Your doctor will be able to report to your HR without going into details about your medical condition. For instance they could say that they "anticipate that xxxxx should be fit to resume work on 23rd September".

This is my understanding of what should happen, no doubt if I'm incorrect others will come along and say so but why not ring the Doctor right now and ask them about the process?

I love Sean nos

Normally they ask you to sign a disclosure/sharing form before visiting the company GP. This gives consent for your doctor to share your medical records with the company GP and for the company GP to report back to the company. The doctor then supplies the company with a report on your health.

hoho5656 wrote: »

But the current GP has been listed in blocked list within company and rumor says it HR won't accept Medical Cert coming from them.

Never heard of this before. If your GP is a trained, medical professional, I'd ignore this.

CIARAN_BOYLE

I love Sean nos wrote: »

Never heard of this before. If your GP is a trained, medical professional, I'd ignore this.

Many gps will offer a sick cert without a medical consultation.

Some of these get blacklisted by firms.

I love Sean nos

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Many gps will offer a sick cert without a medical consultation.

Some of these get blacklisted by firms.

I'm curious now. How does the firm know whether a medical consultation happened or not. Is it written on the cert?

davo10

I love Sean nos wrote: »

I'm curious now. How does the firm know whether a medical consultation happened or not. Is it written on the cert?

Op, first of all, patient confidentiality is sacrosanct and cannot be over ridden against your will by your employment contract.

Typically an employment contract will contain a clause allowing for an employee who is on extended or repeated sick leave to be examined by the company Doctor. The scope of this examination extends only to the validity of your reason for being absent from work. In other words if you tell him/her that you are absent due to pregnancy related illness then the GP can only use the visit to confirm this. The HR is very unwise to do this for a pregnancy related illness as it can add to the stress of the expected mum, if I were you I would remind them of this, you will not be required to attend the appointment if they have even a modicum of sense.

As for the question of black listing Doctors, this does happen, I am in the health profession and I know of Doctors who will hand out certs like candy and local companies refuse to accept them. A cert explains an absence but it does not excuse it, a company can reject it.

I suspect this request was triggered by the length of the cert, some companies have a policy that any absence over two weeks means a visit to the company GP, or a cert received from this particular GP, if he/she has a history of questionable certs then they may think you changed Doctors specifically to be signed off.

CIARAN_BOYLE

I love Sean nos wrote: »

I'm curious now. How does the firm know whether a medical consultation happened or not. Is it written on the cert?

Certain doctors get a reputation and are blacklisted by companies.

The company doesn't know but since they are not obliged to give sick leave of any sort they can just reject whatever certs they want.