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Hi I am looking for some advice a "friend" of mine has recently applied for a job in the doctor's surgery where I am a patient. She already works for another surgery I hate to say this but she is not very discreet and I am really worried that if she is sucessful she will have access to some highly personal information of mine which not even my family know!! Could anyone advise how much of my medical history (if any) she will be able to see. I am so worried about this that I am thinking of changing my doctor.
thanks
Confidentiality will be a condition of her employment and how much she will be able to access will depend on her exact job and the computer systems in use. Unfortunately much is based on trust. If she were to breech confidentiality it could cost her her job. If you have evidence of her indiscretion make an appointment to see the practive menager at your surgery and express your concerns.
I work in a legal department at a hospital and your health records are covered under the data protection act 1998 if she was to reveal anything that are in your medical records she would certainly loose her job but she could also be prosecuted under the data protection act as revealing your medical records would also be regarded as a criminal offence.
Receptionists have access to all medical records but they should not trawl through past medical history thats not relevant. They should only deal with current issues and even then its only to file ( Ie they should just file things away and not read them!!Obviously sometimes people have to type up GP letters etc so "findingout info is often inevitable, The answer to your question is that your "friend" will have access to your entire file but as a condition of the confidentiality agreement she shouldn't look through it all and certainly shouldn't breach your confidentiality if she did find something out.
If you had evidence to suggest that she had breached confidentiality then she could loose her job.
I work in a GP surgery, and I know that even if you were to change surgeries, your records would still be available on the computer system in your old surgery. (Well they would on the computer system that we use anyway - I don't know whether they're all the same??) Just something to think about...
The electronic data records in all surgeries record who looks at what and when they did it. Most practices audit this to see if people are "browsing" medical records in a way not required to do their job - I have had to explain my access to files following such an audit in my surgery so I know it works. (I was responding to a telephone rquest as duty doctor so no appointment was recorded and I made no record in the notes)
Ask your practice manager if they do this from time to time, and if they don't ask them why they don't take their data protection seriously - best of all put it in writing to them with a copy to the PCT (Primary Care Trust) who pay the bills.....
If your "friend" knows this happens and that it could result in civil and criminal charges, as well as loss of her job, she may think twice about looking at your file!
<-- MazzaB, financial warrior! (*with a little help from my [real] flexible friends.......*) Bank --->
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hi bonniebimbo, i can understand why this bothers you, about 4 years ago, when i became pregnant for the second time we decided not to tell anyone (early stages) (just went to the dr to tell him as i'd had problems with my previos pregnancy) and after taking a dizzy spell i had an emergency dr appointment, on the way out when i went to reception to make another appointment, a girl (who i hardly knew!) offered me her congratulations!!!! i was so stunned, i asked her how she knew and sheepishly she told me she'd looked in my file!!!!!!!!!...obviously i was not happy and when i saw my dr the week after i told him what had happened and that she'd looked in my file, he was humming and haaing about it (he was clearly shocked too) and said she must have been checking a result from the hospital..but no..i hadn't had any tests (remember it was just an emergency appointment no results etc) he quickly understood the seriousness of this and explained to me about my notes, notes are on 3 different colours, cant remember rightly but i think dr notes are on pink, something else is yellow (maybe hospital notes) and results and letters for referral etc on white, he explained that reception staff only have the right to look at results (on white) in a file, but he did offer me several options, he could speak to her about this, i could make a formal complaint or i can request my file not to be read by any other staff at the practise apart from dr and nurses only (i cant remember what he called it but there was a term for it)..i opted for him to speak to her, and she was sorry, she said she just glanced inside to see if it was correct file (yeah right). ..if you are unsure, speak to your dr to see if they can offer you your file to be more protected.
Please forgive my linking on my first post, it is due to the amount of reference data. If you are interested in health records and the illegal access of then I recommend the read:
medical records
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<-- MazzaB, financial warrior! (*with a little help from my [real] flexible friends.......*) Bank ---> 
Please click on my scales if you find my comments helpful! (or ya think i'm sexy 
)
..if you are unsure, speak to your dr to see if they can offer you your file to be more protected.