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Hello all,
I'll try to keep the story short....
In a nutshell, my elderly and disabled sister has had a two year long battle to access healthcare. As a result of an ongoing complaint, she's finally been offered a home visit for a specific health assessment.
Due to a number of concerns about how this matter has been handed to date, she felt it was necessary to make a recording of the appointment for her safety (as it involves a physical assessment, which the clinic has raised H&S concerns about) and the fact she's neurodivergent and will likely forget important information during the assessment process, including advice on physical actions, such as bandaging and massage.
To ensure that they weren't coming out with any hidden agendas (which have already been flagged by the health ombudsman) and so that they weren't wasting everyone's time if they showed up and refused to continue the assessment once they found out she was recording the meeting - she advised them of her intent to record in advance.
As a courtesy she offered to send them a transcript of the meeting as soon as it was over, if they felt it was necessary to have a copy.
The specific clinic has taken over a month to respond to this, and have now come back and said they refuse to consent to any recording taking place.
They've said that instead - they will make a voice recording and will then send her the transcript of it. Which instantly raised a red flag for me. They claim this is sufficient as a "reasonable adjustment" for her neurodiversity, but you don't need to be neurodiverse to be allowed to record a medical appointment.
They've also said if she went ahead and video recorded the meeting anyway without their consent, she'd be in breach of "the government guidance on the use of domestic CCTV".
This doesn't apply as she'd be using a phone to record the assessment. From what I can see of the guidance, this seems to simply confirm she would be within her rights to record inside "the boundaries of her home"
This all seems like they are desperately trying to control how this plays out, more than concern about clinician safety/data protection etc, or benefiting her healthcare experience.
I understand she does not need their consent to record anything (and will be recording regardless now) but they need consent to record her. Which they have not asked for when insisting they make this recording on her behalf.
I also understand the GDRP rules with storing/sharing recordings of this nature, and that they are quite strict when it comes to public bodies recording patients.
We've both read the BMA's guidance on the recording of medical appointments, and data protection laws etc and it seems to us that she's well within her rights to record a meeting of this nature, and should be supported to do so under the BMA's guidance/best practice.
Can anyone offer any advice on this issue, please?
I understand the laws regarding recording would come into question depending on how she intended to share the recording. However, she has no plans to do this, the recording is entirely for her own personal use, and safety. She will be the only one to see it, unless something were to go awry during the assessment and it became necessary to validate the events that took place.
Any insight or guidance on this would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
I'll try to keep the story short....
In a nutshell, my elderly and disabled sister has had a two year long battle to access healthcare. As a result of an ongoing complaint, she's finally been offered a home visit for a specific health assessment.
Due to a number of concerns about how this matter has been handed to date, she felt it was necessary to make a recording of the appointment for her safety (as it involves a physical assessment, which the clinic has raised H&S concerns about) and the fact she's neurodivergent and will likely forget important information during the assessment process, including advice on physical actions, such as bandaging and massage.
To ensure that they weren't coming out with any hidden agendas (which have already been flagged by the health ombudsman) and so that they weren't wasting everyone's time if they showed up and refused to continue the assessment once they found out she was recording the meeting - she advised them of her intent to record in advance.
As a courtesy she offered to send them a transcript of the meeting as soon as it was over, if they felt it was necessary to have a copy.
The specific clinic has taken over a month to respond to this, and have now come back and said they refuse to consent to any recording taking place.
They've said that instead - they will make a voice recording and will then send her the transcript of it. Which instantly raised a red flag for me. They claim this is sufficient as a "reasonable adjustment" for her neurodiversity, but you don't need to be neurodiverse to be allowed to record a medical appointment.
They've also said if she went ahead and video recorded the meeting anyway without their consent, she'd be in breach of "the government guidance on the use of domestic CCTV".
This doesn't apply as she'd be using a phone to record the assessment. From what I can see of the guidance, this seems to simply confirm she would be within her rights to record inside "the boundaries of her home"
This all seems like they are desperately trying to control how this plays out, more than concern about clinician safety/data protection etc, or benefiting her healthcare experience.
I understand she does not need their consent to record anything (and will be recording regardless now) but they need consent to record her. Which they have not asked for when insisting they make this recording on her behalf.
I also understand the GDRP rules with storing/sharing recordings of this nature, and that they are quite strict when it comes to public bodies recording patients.
We've both read the BMA's guidance on the recording of medical appointments, and data protection laws etc and it seems to us that she's well within her rights to record a meeting of this nature, and should be supported to do so under the BMA's guidance/best practice.
Can anyone offer any advice on this issue, please?
I understand the laws regarding recording would come into question depending on how she intended to share the recording. However, she has no plans to do this, the recording is entirely for her own personal use, and safety. She will be the only one to see it, unless something were to go awry during the assessment and it became necessary to validate the events that took place.
Any insight or guidance on this would be helpful. Thanks in advance.
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