When hospitals leak data to third parties

I WISH to highlight a deeply distressing incident that reveals a systemic flaw at a public hospital.

The day my mother-in-law died in hospital in May, I remained in the ward with her body to complete documentation. I had not yet informed my wife or other family members of her passing. My wife was in India at the time.

To my shock and dismay, an undertaker contacted my wife directly about the death before I could tell her personally. This person had my wife’s contact details despite no consent having been given by me or my family for the information to be shared with any third party.

This incident caused significant emotional distress to my wife during an already difficult and painful time. The fact that news of my mother-in-law’s passing reached my wife through a third party rather than through her immediate family is deeply upsetting.

I wrote to the hospital via its complaints portal and received a reply on June 9 that it is looking into the matter; to date, I have not received any further communication from them.

In my letter, I also requested that hospital authorities find out how a third party had access to my wife’s personal contact details, and whether a hospital staff member disclosed personal information protected by the Data Protection Act to the undertaker – this would have clearly been in breach of the hospital’s confidentiality obligation and a violation of data protection requirements under the Act.

In subsequent discussions, I came to understand that sharing patient details with third parties, particularly undertakers, is a frequent occurrence in the hospital’s mortuary (the assumption is that undertakers compete to be the first to reach the family and thus handle the funeral), and that nothing is being done to stop this unethical practice.

Apart from warning the public about this issue, I am writing with the hope that this practice will be stopped as it causes added anxiety to grieving families, breaches the Data Protection Act, and gives what is otherwise a very good hospital a bad image.

JOYAPPA

Taman Seputeh

Kuala Lumpur