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Case ref:201400778
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Date:January 2015
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Body:Forth Valley NHS Board
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Sector:Health
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Outcome:Some upheld, recommendations
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Subject:communication / staff attitude / dignity / confidentiality
Summary
Mr C complained because he felt a nurse had inappropriately disclosed his medical information at a meeting with prison staff. He also complained about the way the board handled his complaints.
In response to our enquiries, the board confirmed the nurse discussed issues in relation to Mr C at the meeting but she did not disclose any medical information. They also confirmed that Mr C had given instructions to the board that his information should not be shared but those instructions were given after the meeting in question had taken place. The board provided a copy of a patient registration form that Mr C signed when he was received into the prison healthcare system which advised him that the NHS may need to share information about his health and medication with people outside the NHS, such as prison staff. In light of this, we did not uphold his complaint about this.
However, in looking at the board's handling of Mr C's complaints, the evidence available confirmed that they did not respond to some of them and for those they did respond to, they could have provided a fuller reply. We upheld this part of Mr C's complaint.
Recommendations
We recommended that the board:
- apologise to Mr C for not responding fully to his complaint; and
- advise us of the steps that have been taken to improve the handling of healthcare complaints from prisoners.