Would this be considered a breach of confidentiality

[kaleda]

I would be grateful for people's views on this scenario.

A therapist working in a GP surgery receives a phone call from a woman demanding to know when her(adult) son's appointment is. The therapist obviously cannot disclose this information and the mother becomes very angry and abusive with the therapist, and threatens to make a complaint. After the phone call, the therapist, who has access to all practice patients' electronic surgery records, goes to make a note on the system re. the conversation. However, the therapist accesses the woman's notes accidentally, not her son's. The therapist realises the mistake, but not before spotting that the woman has a diagnosis of a serious mental health disorder, which might go some way to explain the woman's behaviour. In supervision, the therapist mentions to the supervisor the possiblility of a complaint being brought by the woman and also mentions that the woman has a history of mental health problems. The supervisor decides that the therapist has breached confidentiality by accessing the woman's GP records and instigates disciplinary proceedings.

Is this a reasonable response? If so, this raises many questions re. access to patient information in GP surgeries. I have worked in several surgeries and have often caught sight of confidential information, e.g. letters lying on desks, notes in the office, the board in the office naming who had died that day, etc.

I would be very interested on your thoughts.

[SWM]

I would be grateful for people\'s views on this scenario.

A therapist working in a GP surgery receives a phone call from a woman demanding to know when her(adult) son\'s appointment is. The therapist obviously cannot disclose this information and the mother becomes very angry and abusive with the therapist, and threatens to make a complaint. After the phone call, the therapist, who has access to all practice patients\' electronic surgery records, goes to make a note on the system re. the conversation. However, the therapist accesses the woman\'s notes accidentally, not her son\'s. The therapist realises the mistake, but not before spotting that the woman has a diagnosis of a serious mental health disorder, which might go some way to explain the woman\'s behaviour. In supervision, the therapist mentions to the supervisor the possiblility of a complaint being brought by the woman and also mentions that the woman has a history of mental health problems. The supervisor decides that the therapist has breached confidentiality by accessing the woman\'s GP records and instigates disciplinary proceedings.

Is this a reasonable response?

i would think this situation does breach the confidentiality of the mother involved, however it is a harsh reaction, mistakes like this do happen, and would generally be over looked. perhaps the fact that the counsellor inquestion took time to read the patients notes would suggest that this was not just an error. if the counsellor opend the notes and then closed them when she realised the mistake then that would be forgivable. however this was not the case and the counsellor proceeded to read information about the patient.

there would be other considerations with this scenario, if the counsellor is part of a multidisciplinary team she should really have right to access the notes of the members of the family of her client for the purpose of social factors and risk assessment, also if the mother is open to members of the team then access to her notes would be appropraite for the purpose of shared responsiblity and defensive practice. to say whether this is appropriate access would really be an organisational decision rahter than a data protection issue.

If so, this raises many questions re. access to patient information in GP surgeries. I have worked in several surgeries and have often caught sight of confidential information, e.g. letters lying on desks, notes in the office, the board in the office naming who had died that day, etc.

I would be very interested on your thoughts.

these are all breaches of confidentiality and they happen all the time across organistions. these things should not happen but they do. another breach of data protection is leaving a computer while logged in and the screen unlocked.