Yes, definately. There are many of us who object to such personal information being copied and stored without our consent, but as I said, it remains to be seen if the company will accept this. If not, I will take it further. This is a great forum, I didn't know it existed, but it has loads of information on it. I will keep checking back. It's also nice to know that there are more people going through the same things. Have a good weekend, when it gets here!!!!

Thanks very much for your help, everyone. I spoke to my local hospital yesterday, and their laywer called me back and basically said that my employer can't copy the appointment letter and hold it without my permission. What I have asked the hopspital to do is ,when I (or a family member) get a letter about an appointment, to pop an appointment card in with the letter just stating time, date, and doctors name. As far as I'm concerned, thats all my employer needs to know. I feel that this is an acceptable compromise, but if my work still insists on the actual hospital letter, I will have no choice but to open a case with the info commission, as they suggested. Once again, I am grateful for your replies, have a good weekend everyone!!!!

Hello. I am a newbie, and would like to ask for help, please. My employer has decided that to clamp down on staff throwing sickies, they have now said that if anyone has a hospital appointment, or is having an operation, we MUST bring in the letter from the hospital with all our personal details on it. They will then photocopy this and keep it 'on file'. This also applies to any hospital visits I make with my children, so they will in effect have my childrens medical information on file. What I would like to know is, can they keep these hospital letters on file without my permission, after all, some of the letters detail medical proceedures which are very personal, and what can they 'do to me' if I refuse to let them copy the letters?. I must say that I am very genuine, and always used to bring in letters and appointments out of curtesy, and am happy to let my supervisor see them. What I object to is the fact they want to hold copies of these letters. Is it breaking data protection, or medical confidentiality etc? Surely, this information is between myself and the medical profession? Thanks in advance.