Off The Record

NHS patient records may be sold to private firms.

There are no words to describe the horror I am feeling right now. There are some serious confidentiality issues here - often, post codes will be given along with the anonymised records, which is enough to trace somebody (apparently, all you really need to get a letter delivered in this country is a post code and a house number). Other times, patient names will be given along with the information one trusts to be confidential. And in order to get out of getting your medical information used as some sort of market research study, you have to apply for it under the Data Protection Act. Since when has patient confidentiality been something that you had to apply for? Isn't it one of those things that is supposed to come as standard, and it's for you to choose who to tell about the details of your illnesses?

I can understand the reasoning behind breaking patient confidentiality in some instances, to be fair - and those entirely in the case where a report has to be given to the police for the patient's well-being, one way or another. If a patient comes in with a gunshot wound, for instance. If someone comes in showing the signs of domestic violence. If someone admits to comission of murder to their therapist. But I don't believe that drug overdoses should be reported to the police (not sure if they are or not) or if a therapy patient admits to shoplifting or something. And if I don't believe that all medical cases that involve an instance of breaking the law should be reported to the police, you know I don't believe for a second that patients should have to fill out paperwork (likely difficult to get hold of, requiring a GP visit they don't actually need, so time out of their work week, and liable to be 'lost in the system') just to make sure their personal health data doesn't fall into the hands of money-grubbing yahoos.

This. Isn't. Right. I mean, don't get me wrong - I am profoundly grateful for the public health service we get in this country. For the most part, it works - patients get seen. People who couldn't afford treatment at least get the basics. I can see a GP whenever I need to without being charged for it, and the cost for most prescriptions is reasonably low. I don't like how dentistry is still shriekingly expensive no matter what you do, and I don't like the fact that I need to pay through the nose for a pair of glasses that actually help me, but on the whole, I've got it a lot better than a lot of people I know in the US, trying to get through with serious medical conditions and no insurance.

However, while I am grateful for what I have, I am seeing alarming turns for the worse in this system. Primary Care Trusts refusing to prescribe life-saving medications for patients because they don't want to justify the expense, just for a start. And this? This is beyond the fucking pale. I'm sorry, but the government is going to have to understand that the NHS is not a business. It is not meant to make money. It is not meant to turn a profit. It is not supposed to be crawling with middle management arseholes sucking up the money to set meaningless targets for people who then don't have the time or resources to actually meet the targets because all the time and money is going to the middle management arseholes. I don't mind paying taxes for a system that works reasonably well. I do mind the NHS using my personal details as a saleable commodity.

Now I need to figure out who to ask to make absolutely godsdamned sure that when this kicks off (and I don't kid myself that it's going to be an 'if' situation - protest in this country isn't for shit), my records aren't going to be among those handed over to private firms so they can tailor what they sell to the NHS to best suit their profit margins. No. Thank you.

The Days Are Just Packed

The batshit crazy has come out in force today.

I had the patient who refused to listen when I told her that no, it was unlikely that a simple eye test was going to in any way interfere with the injections she's going to have in her eye in about three months. She was one of those old dears who you can't quite get mad at despite the fact that they are eating your morning with their ramble that basically never bloody well gets anywhere and actually interrupts every attempt to explain the solution.

Worse was Issues Man. Issues Man apparently missed an appointment for surgery because he wasn't in a good enough place for it mentally, but rather than ringing, he just plain didn't turn up. Okay, we all get into mentally fucked-up places from time to time and shit happens. However, taking that out on the hapless secretary who has very, very little to do with the operating theatre in the first place is generally speaking not the way to go. Plus for some reason, he kept insisting that his GP needed a referral letter from us so that we could do surgery on him. That escaped my comprehension entirely, because ... well, no. It just ... my brain still won't wrap around it, sorry.

And to cap off a lovely day, the stoned-cow-staring moo-woman has basically turned up and said, "Do you have a minute so that we can teach you how to fill in these form things for if we're referring someone to another hospital?" Now, given that we don't really have the time to finish everything we need to do already unless we push and rush and work overtime like fuckers, what we need this added to our duties for is beyond me. Given the fact that we type letters, book out notes, file things as appropriate, fold letters, stuff envelopes (those latter two in quite high volume, given all the typing from our overstuffed clinic lists), deal with the phones and go fetch notes from medical records because medical records won't actually leave their pit and bring notes when asked for ... well, the 18 weeks grading sheets are bad enough without adding forms that should possibly be filled out at reception, or by the doctor, or something.

*headdesk* Please let me go home now?