Patient confidentiality when seeking advice with PALS.

The request was refused by Department of Health (Northern Ireland).

Dear Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (Northern Ireland),

Please would you be kind enough to inform me what regualtions are in place governing patient confidentiality when seeking advice with PALs personel. Are there any reasonable grounds for PALs personnel to braodcast confidential conversations with patients to the entire clinical and PCT staff ? Would this action be acceptable and routine ? Is there any patient confidentiality when seeking advice regarding treatment in hosptals etc ? Is eveything said in a private discussion with Pals automatically sent to all clinical staff ? If this is so, what is the credible function of Pals ? How could a patient who has had their entire treatment made impossible by a PALs personel acting in such a way seek to make a complaint ? How could such a patient make a complaint when the complaints department is also acting in this way, i.e., broadcasting patients intimate conversations when seeking assistance and advice, to the entire PCT and all clinical staff involved in her care ?

Yours faithfully,

Germain Gross

FOI (DHSSPSNI),

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Mr Gross

This does not appear to be a request that can be answered by DHSSPS. I have attached contact details for each of the trusts as they may be able to provide you with the information you have requested.

John McCann
Information Management Branch
DHSSPS
Tel: 02890 528218

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Dear FOI (DHSSPSNI),

You say that you, the department of health do not have this information, but my PCT refuses to discuss any matter with me whatsoever.

They have informed me this in writing. The health authority where they funded my treatment also refuse to speak to me, (complaints, PALs, admiistartion, Chief executive, etc.)

Under these circumstances, how can I, or any other idividual ask any reasonable question regarding the breaking of one of the most important patient-doctor values, i.e. patient confidentiality ?

Who will listen to my complaint, if the complaints department, the Pals office, the chief executive, and even ICAS all refuse to speak to me , not only in one PCT but in two ?

And even if they did, by some miracle, now speak to me, it is impossible to have any confidence in their impartiality, since they have also informed me that they "do not care about my patient rights, and are only interested in protecting their staff", presumably, regardless of their abusive behavior to patients.

Let me assure you that this matter contains no one iota of violence, or abuse by me or any one except the medical staff towrds me and the PCT breaking all patient confidentiality without the slightest qualms.

Please would you respond to my request for the simple information:

Do Patient Liason and the complaints departments in nhs trusts have an obligation to uphold patient confidentiality or not ? Would it be acceptable for these offices to send confidential patient information to whomever they chose?

The answer is very simple: either yes or no.

Since these same departments, Pals and Complaints also refuse to speak to me now, after this abusive behavior, how do I make a reasonable complaint ?

Please do not say "the Ombudsman", when you already know that the Ombudsman only investigates 2% of the patient complaints it receives, and of those, it is certain that psychiatroc complaints make up perhaps only 2% of the 2%.

The Ombudsman refuses to even answer a letter or email. They act asif I were a sub-human and it was beneath their dignity to recognise my existence, and any idea of answering a letter, let alone a complaint is so remote, that I must be a moron to even suggest it.

So please make a practical suggestion, or is it true, that the NHS condones psychiatric abuse wtihout reservation ?

Your answer, that I should ask someone else, when you are in charge and have rsponsibility for these matters is not reasonable. Please would you be so kind as to provide the infromation requested.

Yours sincerely,

Germain Gross

FOI (DHSSPSNI),

Mr Gross

With regard to your query below, I have attached a link to the Departmental Code of Practice on patient confidentiality.

http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/confidentiali...

John McCann
Information Management Branch
DHSSPS
Tel: 02890 528218

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Dear FOI (DHSSPSNI),

thank you for your document. It is very interesting, and I appreciate you sending it to me. Nevertheless, it does not seem to contain any relevant information regarding the matter in hand, which is the specific rules of patient confidentiality pertaining to the PALs service in all nhs PCT'S and Trusts.
I want to know how a complaint can be made against a PALS & Complaints office that breaks patient confidentiality and sends all the details of converstaions with them directly to the clinical staff concerned in their discussions, thus destroying the patients relationship with the clinical staff, and making their treatment impossible ?

How does a patient make such a complaint against a complaints department, especially when the complaints department in question refuses to speak to the patient, and the CE of the same health trust also refuses to speak to the patient ?

Yours sincerely,

Germain Gross

FOI (DHSSPSNI),

Mr Greer

I have attached a link to Complaints about the Health Service in Northern Ireland.

This is the last piece of information I can give you on this matter and you should follow up your complaint through the channels advised in this link.

http://www.dhsspsni.gov.uk/hsccomplaints...

Thank You
John McCann
Information Management Branch
DHSSPS
Tel: 02890 528218

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