Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi all! We have been experiencing an issue on site where threads have been missing the latest postings. The platform host Vanilla are working on this issue. A workaround that has been used by some is to navigate back from 1 to 10+ pages to re-sync the thread and this will then show the latest posts. Thanks, Mike.
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Private and Confidential

  • 05-12-2019 9:24pm
    #1
    Whitecarstones
    Registered Users Posts: 129 ✭✭


    Hi I wrote a letter of complaint to the consultant pschyatrist dealing with my medical needs. I explicitly wrote to this woman with the words Private and Confidential.

    I have met other members on her team since then, each have disclosed with me that they have seen and read this letter.

    Furthermore, it is now in my medical file. Each time I meet a new member of her team (which seems to be every time) they now have access and can read the contents I had only wanted to be seen by the person it was addressed to.

    Are they allowed to do this? I am so angry that my privacy has been breached, regardless if they are on her team or not. This was a complaint to her not to them.


Comments

  • #2
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    When you write to a Doctor in their capacity as your physician, particularly with a letter of complaint, that complaint is included in your patient file, which of course is confidential. Also, Doctors are permitted to get opinions from their peers about patients. Your Doctor would not be permitted to discuss your confidential file with anyone else outside of medical personnel, Hospital administration, indemnity providers and legal representation.


  • #3
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    You initiated this correspondence. You don't get to stipulate unilaterally that a person to whom you write can not show your letter to someone else. Stating that it is private and confidential merely offers some protection from a claim of defamation as it makes clear you did not intend the contents to be seen by anyone other than the addressee.

    The situation might be different if someone agreed or promised in advance to treat your correspondence as private, confidential etc and welched on that agreement. However, the recipient of the information is still entitled (and often obliged) to make a judgment on whether it should or must be disclosed to another person.

    Accordingly there was probably nothing wrong in principle with putting the letter on file, subject to it being a relevant document to your treatment (on which point only a consultant psychiatrist can really comment - it is a clinical matter).


Advertisement