Topic starter
My employer has a policy whereby if we havent turned up for work or booked sicked they consider us 'missing' and send the police round to our house in case we're at the bottom of the stairs, broken leg and phone just out of reach....unlikely but thats the NHS for you.
This happened to me back in November, the police asked what they needed to know about me and our control room told them i have heart failure and blackouts.
When the police caught up with me they were very interested in the blackouts part and started asking me all manner of questions which were answered with "i dont have blackouts, i dont know where this has come from" which seemed to irk them.
2 weeks later the DVLA send me a latter asking me to surrender my licence or subject myself to all manner of tests to keep it, i obviously decided to keep my licence. i asked them why this was happening and they passed the buck back to the police.
I phone the police who were very secret squirrel and also didnt want to talk about the information, exasperated i filed a formal complaint and shortly after new year got a call from an officer who conceded that the information on my 'blackouts' had come from the ambulance control room.
Finally with something concrete to go on i approach our occ health dept at work to see what they have on file about me....lovely lady, met with her before and she showed me my whole file and there is no mention of blackouts.
Next stop was my GP and we went through my notes and again, theres no blackouts or illness of that nature.
i'm now waiting on a letter to my employer asking where this info on blackouts has come from as it contradicts its own occ health dept, it bears no relation to my GP notes and is entirely fictitious...isnt data under the data protection act supposed to be accurate?...as an employee dont i have a legal entitlement to know what an employer holds on me?
without looking into this too much deeper until i get the reply from work (they have 40 days according to data protection laws) it would seem there have been breaches of incorrect information all over the place, the kind that could end a career due to having a driving licence revoked and a damaging 'false' medical condition following you around.
what sort of punishment can the firm expect?...i have no love for them so would happily see them nailed to the wall.
Posted : 26/01/2018 12:53 pm
This is like if Hollyoaks did a data protection training course.
Posted : 26/01/2018 12:57 pm
What the actual ****?
It’s not the NHS at all we certainly don’t do that, we ring the staff, we check holiday rotas, we check the sickness system and if still no obvious answer someone will call around to their home.
The Ambulance service can check to see who called and what they said if you write to them.
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:08 pm
<span style="color: #444444; background-color: #eeeeee;">as an employee dont i have a legal entitlement to know what an employer holds on me?</span>
Yes you do. You can ask for a copy of everything they have on you and they have to provide it within 30 days (or at least 30 days after GDPR comes in. It may be a little longer at the moment).
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:15 pm
Topic starter
Thats just it Drac, different service...my previous one would exhaust all the phone numbers we had for someone then send a team leader or a locality manager round in a car,,,,in my new trusts they're incredibly risk averse and punt anything like this onto the local police to follow up.
When i didnt turn up for shift they called the police, the police said 'we'll go round and check on him' or words to that effect and asked what they needed to know about me....this is when it all went tits up with some plank in the control room passing the police false information on me suffering with blackouts...whether it was done as a joke i dont know but its caused 3 months of crap and stress as i've had to fight to keep my licence, the police close ranks and dont want to give anything away and i'm waiting on my reply from the ambulance service.
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:20 pm
in my new trusts they’re incredibly risk averse and punt anything like this onto the local police to follow up.
I'm astounded the police will do that. Surely they have much more pressing matters to attend to, and should be telling your employers to Foxtrot Oscar, until there's a genuine concern for your wellbeing.
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:25 pm
Like if he suffered from heart problems and blackouts?
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:29 pm
Very odd way to deal with given the resources available.
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:31 pm
Like if he suffered from heart problems and blackouts?
In which case an Ambulance would be more appropriate, not wasting time waiting for the police to arrive, THEN call up a medical response.
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:34 pm
Simply put yes you have a right to see all information an organisation has on you, you have to formally request it, and pay a nominal fee...
the organisation has a duty to
1: use the information only for the purposes it told you about
2: make sure it’s accurate
3: only hold it for as long as needed
so you may have a case against them for breach of data protection act, you could use that to leverage them to tell you what you want to know and get it put right.
failling that if your really bothered you could formally complain about the organisation to get it “put right”
but really your not going to achieve much as there hasn’t really been any harm/loss due to this that I think is mostly incorrect info on you they can arguably say was used appropriately
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:38 pm
Topic starter
Thats kind of the point, i can understand them getting twitchy over heart problems but the blackouts thing has no basis in reality....nothing from me, nothing from my GP, nothing from the occ health dept at work and nothing from the local hospitals that treated me over the summer....nothing.
So how has it ended up being passed to the local police by some numpty in ambulance control and has now lead to this palaver with the DVLA, drivers medical exams etc...
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:39 pm
Hang on, so if you're 'missing' from your employer, even for a few hours they call the Police, and they actually ATTEND!
I can't even imagine how that call would have gave "hello, 999? yes one of our staff members hasn't turned up for work" "Erm, okay and what would you like the Police to do about it?" "well, check on him" "Okay.... does he have a history of mental illness or sickness? Because I'm not sending a Bobby out to wake up an your staff member who's over slept" "Oh... errr, YES! He has blackouts, very serious ones, he could be DEAD!" "Well, shitfire, I'm a little surprised you didn't say that at the start... we'll go now".
On and no, the NHS don't do that as a matter of course.
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:46 pm
Topic starter
bu really your not going to achieve much as there hasn’t really been any harm/loss due to this
Try being on the recieving end of it....whenever you get pulled over for a routine stop and they run your details, oh you suffer with blackouts sir?...another 2 weeks passes before yet another DVLA medical dept letter arrives and the whole process starts again....insurance renewal time, any conditions you need to tell us about?...(they check with the DVLA they dont just take your word for it)....of course theres harm caused by this and i obviously want incorrect medical information removed,
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:47 pm
It’s entirely possible that it was human error when they phoned the police about the issue, and not an issue with the data they hold on you...
but say there is an error in their records about you... unless your saying/think it was maliciously created fictitiously to attack you? That’s going to be very difficult to prove, and isn’t really a DP issue... assuming Not...
this might be an error on their side, it might be an error on your doctors side, and since put right, but Not passed on....
it could be human error or system error... or a million things
Your rights at at this point, probably extend to, seeing the info they hold on you, and requesting that they rectify any inaccuracies. If you can prove harm/loss you could try to seek damages but that’s about it.
I get that your annoyed by this, but the regular will simply look at this as and error in the data that (hopefully) they have corrected once they have been made aware.
Posted : 26/01/2018 1:49 pm
What part of the Health Service is this in? If I didn't turn up for work this wouldn't happen, or in my wifes area.
I can see its a right royal pain but unfortunately its happened and your are going to have to sort it.
The Police once they were informed had a duty of care (especially with all the media interest about people having blackouts at the wheel of vehicles).
Sounds like a mad policy to involve the Police to go and knock on your door and see if you are asleep or not !
In reality all you can do is ask if work can make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again ie stuff that isn't on your records is implied.
Posted : 26/01/2018 2:07 pm