There are certain aspects of public services in the area I live in which cause me concern:
Firstly, as I have detailed in earlier posts my former employer behaved in a cavalier way towards me. I was of course bullied and then had no alternative but to leave the job I had done to my employer’s satisfaction for over 12 years.
If you are planning to have treatment in a private hospital, I would strongly advise that you question the staff closely about what guarantees will be given on patient confidentiality. This applies whether you are going to be a private patient or are an NHS patient due to receive treatment in a private hospital. If you are going to be a paying patient then consider getting legal advice on making patient confidentiality a term of your contract with the private hospital.
I complained to the healthcare provider which is currently contracted to perform certain NHS operations about the breach of confidentiality. Below is part of the reply I received:
” . . . I can confirm that no one at [. . . . .] has ever had access to any of your counselling notes. The medical records we have are only in relation to the consultation and treatment for your foot. . . . We hold a tracker of any NHS notes requested from [NHS healthcare provider’s name] and this demonstrates that your NHS notes have never been ordered from them.”
Following the breach of patient confidentiality by the healthcare provider which I mentioned in my previous post, I wrote to the local manager. I wanted to resolve the issue quickly and quietly in a way which would not jeopardise people’s jobs or patient care.
The small town I live in is rife with (exaggerated) gossip. Although local people know this, newcomers to the area may not initially realise that personal, confidential matters they discuss with work colleagues (some of whom should not be hearing about them) could well spread quickly around the town.
The advice from the government website states (and let’s not forget that this applies equally to their own departments!):
“What employees should do if they’re bullied or harassed
Employees should see if they can sort out the problem informally first. If they can’t, they should talk to their:
If this doesn’t work, they can make a formal complaint using their employer’s grievance procedure. If this doesn’t work and they’re still being harassed, they can take legal action at an employment tribunal.” https://www.gov.uk/workplace-bullying-and-harassment
This is great in theory, but if as a civil servant a manager bullies you and no action is taken your options can seem limited.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) describes the Freedom of Information Act 2000 as providing “public access to information held by public authorities.
It does this in two ways:
The Act covers any recorded information that is held by a public authority, including government departments, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and by UK-wide public authorities based in Scotland.
The main principle behind freedom of information legislation is that people have a right to know about the activities of public authorities, unless there is a good reason for them not to. This is sometimes described as a presumption or assumption in favour of disclosure.”
Continue reading LEGAL DUTIES UNDER FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT: IGNORED?
I hope my readers have a wonderful 2017.
It has been suggested that if I had not started writing my blog the online personal abuse about me which has continued for a long time would not have happened. I therefore want to explain my reasons for writing about the bullying and the order in which things happened.
We all know people who are attention-seekers, and after a couple of alcoholic drinks most of us become attention-seekers. It is usually fairly harmless, low level behaviour when the alcohol has made us lose our inhibitions. However, there are those who turn everything that happens in their lives into a drama: from burning the toast in the morning to the evening train being late, it all becomes fodder for this type of behaviour. The people in their lives can reach overload as it can be exhausting for the “audience” if it is relentless without periods of relative calm and stability.
I decided to write a blog about workplace bullying to inform readers about the facts: what happened, how it was dealt with and the outcome. I wanted to enable readers to recognise the signs of workplace bullying if something similar happened to them. In my next post I hope to give people some skills in dealing with being bullied in the workplace. With hindsight, there are some things I would have done differently in order to achieve a better outcome.