What do you do. What would you do?

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classic33

Leg End Member
Repeated text messages from a hospital with regards an apointment. Only its not for myself.

Earlier this month text messages were received with regards an appointment. My only response by text was what appointment & for who. This led to a message being left on the answerphone that the appointment was for somone else, who lives over 200 miles from me. In this message I'm told who(name supplied) the appointment was for & what it was for, department wise.

Phoning back on the number that had been left to inform them that they had the wrong telephone number, also that this was not the first time this had happenned. As on the previous occasion. I gave them the number that they had called & informed them that it didn't belong to the person they were trying to contact. What they did next suprised me & caught me off guard. The person taking the call proceeded to read out the landline number of the person to me. Obviously not my number so I informed them of this.

They then proceeded to give out the contact details of the next of kin. Name & two contact numbers, but no address. If I'd a pen & paper at the time I'd have written them down. The thought did cross my mind, but they were not my details so why would I need them, other than to prove what had been released without checking first. Phone a second time, on a seperate number given by them, to get the issue resolved.
Person I spoke to was a manager. They then proceed to tell me why the person they have spoken to, on my number, was being contacted in the first place. Its a pre-admission appointment, prior to an operation on the other persons hip.

When this happenned earlier this year, with the same hospital & others along the South coast. The appointments were to see a gynacologist(I was pregnant it appears) & others for appointments at a Dependency Unit!!(What is one?)

So because of a wrong number, so I say. I now have the persons name, address & telephone number. Also the contact details of their next of kin. Oh & the date of the appointment & hospital admission date. They insist that the records are correct & the number isn't mine.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
I think you've done the minimum, by letting them know it's the wrong number. The maximum would be to raise the lapse in confidentiality with the hospital management. At best it's thoughtless. (as in the person wasn't thinking' - if it was just the landline number, that would be likely but to give all those other details seems beyond-dim.)

As for me, I'm afraid I'd probably only get round to the minimum, and probably more likely by return of texts, as I don't like phones much.
 

Archie_tect

De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
Location
Northumberland
It's incompetance and they risk letting the correct patient down who risks not getting the treatment they deserve and will have been waiting for for a long time... I would ring up the patient if it was me and explain what's happened and let them take it up with the hospital direct before they lose their place in the queue... clearly the hospital will write them off as a 'no show' otherwise.
 
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classic33

classic33

Leg End Member
It's incompetance and they risk letting the correct patient down who risks not getting the treatment they deserve and will have been waiting for for a long time... I would ring up the patient if it was me and explain what's happened and let them take it up with the hospital direct before they lose their place in the queue... clearly the hospital will write them off as a 'no show' otherwise.

Land line number there is no response, or the number is not recognised. The other number I know is my own.
The hospital has tried the landline number, whilst I was on the mobile number.
 
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classic33

classic33

Leg End Member
If I'd written the next of kin's numbers down, I'd have phoned them. Its one reason I wish I had done.

But its the amount of information they gave to someone who had said they were not related that annoyed me. One of those was doing so was a Department manager.

I only hope my own records are safer.
 

Archie_tect

De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
Location
Northumberland
In that case C, there's nothing you can do and there;'s not much you can do more than you'ce already tried.- other than perhaps writing down the relevant bits and sending a letter to the Hospital Administrator pointing out their problem in that a patient is going to lose out unless they get their act together! Well done you for trying - i hope they appreciate your efforts- it's more than many people would do.
 
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