Private hospital sharing information

Private hospital where you have paid for confidentail information is where I would direct my queries.

Possibility is your GP has deemed it necessary to the add the information to your public hospital file, knowing your situation even though he couldn't put his finger on it.

We had exactly the opposite take place, getting the local public hospital staff to take notice that we had seen a heart specialist in the days previous and were waiting on the report to GP when husband collapsed, and taken to our local hospital because we live in their catchment, by ambulance. 

End result I was forced to use the pay phone in the waiting room to ring the private specialist and request that they fax a copy of husband results to hospital, when specailist asked for fax number of hospital I had to tell her they had insisted I couldn't ring from their hospital phone, specialist would have to call back to find the numbers, to say she was unimpressed was the understatement of the year.

Discharged the following day from local hospital, I had a copy of the specailist report by then, thanks to a nurse, she knew my sister the director of nursing, and or old fashioned name matron of another hospital, her suggestion that I take my husband across the city to the dedicated heart hospital, I still think the Dr either didn't know what he was doing, or didn't care to treat husband knowing he was an ex-smoker.

I have heard plenty of horror stories about this particular very senior Dr at local hospital, and its a case of watch out if you are overweight or ex-smoker.

The reception at heart hospital was completly the opposite when I said I have a private specialist diagnoses, congratulated that I had taken the matter into my own hands and they then knew what was wrong, used her diagnoses as a starting point, rang her office got detailed printout of echocardiograms, and what her next suggestion was, which the heart hospital followed up, and much to their surprise husband did not have blocked arteries, he had an infection of the heart muscle, possibility a virus, they still don't know what caused it, as he has survived and is now over 6 years on from his inital problem.

The heart hospital watches him very carefully, and the professor has taken an interest in his case, which all helps, I also have the phone number of the professor's secretery if I have any worries, and i have his ear when we present at the hospital, there now is a note on hospital file in his own handwriting, listen to wife, she knows what she is talking about, and he has signed the note off with his signature.

Since husband got sick I have educated myself about heart failure with library books, local Dr's medical books, the internet, (have really frightened myself sometimes) have taken it all on board, beacuse for me knowing what is going on is how I cope.  Even that senior nurse sister said you are very good, when she asked me some questions about husbands condition, and mentioned as a comment that even she has been having heart issues, she laughed when I fired about 9 questions at her, about her condition, she told me I can come and work in her heart ward at her hospital, but she knows I have no formal nursing training.

The local hospital, I am very suspicious of their ability to treat anything more than a broken bone, and even then they stuffed that up when husband broke his ankle last november, set ankle without any painkillers, well they gave him painkiller injection but didn't give it time to work, very shabby and I didn't mince my words when I told them so, and in no uncertain terms threatened them with legal action.

I think once your GP got the information , which you had consented to, he or she then uploaded it to the data base that is accesible to other medical practioners and hospitals. I had a similar problem though again , mine was the oppposite way round, in that I went to a private emergency unit with a swollen foot, I had previously been at A & E a few weeks prior, but couldnt face another 9 hr wait so opted togo private.  

The consultant who seen me was unable to access my old xray pictures to do a comparisson as the NHS hospital didnt " share" their records.   I had to have further tests repeated including blood and Xrays which may not have been needed if the previous ones had been available !

Confidentiality clauses can be confusing , its one thing a medical practioner discussing your care and treatment outside the hosiptial to others not immediaitely connected with your care, this is very clear cut.  However, sharing with other medical staff , whom you may be consulting with is a bit of a grey area.  sorry I cant be more helpful, its not something I have come across before but at least you were able to get to the bottom of what was causing your problem and can hopefully get full recovery .

Dear Florin, I feel the opposite. I have had private consultations and there seems to be no communication facilities at all between the NHS and the private sector apart from pen and ink. In fact communication within the NHS does not seem that brilliant. My GP cannot see my xrays. I would like to have all the information about me available in one place to any medical person rather than just data held in separate places so things could be missed so they do not have the whole picture.

Hi Florin - sorry to read of your situation. As has been suggested, it would be beneficial for you to question the parties concerned, probably by letter/email so there is a record of your querie should you find any discrepancy in privacy rights which you choose to take further. You must not be afraid to ask questions, and I understand the frustration at being left out of the loop when the subject is something as crucially important as your health. 

I am so sorry you are unhappy about your information being passed on, but 2 thoughts occur to me.  Nearly all consultants work for the NHS as well as their private work, and what if your consultation results were seriously bad, would you not want your own Dr to know this?   There have been notices on display for a long time in my local hospital about the sharing of Patients records, and it is possible to opt out of the sharing.  But--if you had a serious accident, wouldn't you want A & E to be able to know if you had any problems?  Best wishes  Anne I.