"Doctors not allowed to see blood test results"

My Daughter has a complex health condition which requires regular blood tests and treatment in a number of different centres under different consultants and her GP.

In May 2017, her blood tests ordered by her GP and consultant from another centre were taken in St James.

When she attended the National Centre for Hereditary Coagulations department in St James, The consultant stated she was unable to access her blood tests results due to data protection issues and she would have to go back to her GP.

So  a consultant treating my daughter was unable to access her blood test results taken in the same building! 

Citing data protections shows St James staff do not understand data protection as once the patient gives informed consent (which my daughter did) it is possible to share information.

6 working days later, 1 wasted hospital appointment, 1 GP appointment, 3 unanswered and 6 answered phone calls later none of her health care professionals were able to access her blood test results.

Made a formal complaint to the hospital and after some correspondence an apology was issued with a promise to improve procedures.

One year later back with the same clinic, blood tests ordered by consultant. Daughter requested a copy of these as she had another appointment with a different doctor and needed blood test results for a planned procedure.

The doctor took a note of this request. 2 weeks later still no blood tests results,

She rings St James to be told

“It is not policy to issue patients with their blood test results”

Daughter goes through the whole saga again. Eventually they state they will issue letter to GP and copy her in on the results.

A week later still no letter. Trying to make intimate personal phone calls in an open plan office as a young professional is very time consuming and stressful for her. She can’t understand as it’s her data why is it so difficult to get hold of it. She either now has to hassle her GP for a copy of the results, or get these blood tests done again unnecessarily. I think this is an example of the reasons why our health care system is so costly.

I can understand St James wants clinical oversight in case of health issues but surely if there was an issue with the results someone would have been in touch already.

I don't think in my experience that St James are operating to HSE values of care, trust, compassion and learning. They seem to be operating a silo mentality where patients are kept in the dark and not trusted.  Why are they leaving patients in the dark?