its WRONG to tell the truth?

[cashman]

just read a story in the daily a docter now retired wrote on a womans medical record in 1985 a walking social disaster this was in referance to the fact she had 6 children by 5 differant fathers (one who she didnt know) then in 1988 he wrote a socially disaterous girl with a penchant for west indian consorts, bearing in mind to this day she has never worked and survives on state handouts i wont say how much cos it will have you slavering, the healthcare trust has apologised to this woman for any distress his comments caused and said comments of this nature are unacceptable in this day @ age and as such would result in a formal investigation and possible disiplinary procedure. this begs the question is it WRONG to tell the truth? it seems that way to me.

[lettie]

I'm afraid that medical records are as prone to PC as anything else. We have to be extremely careful what we write down (even when it's true), as the patient may see the records and complain.

This causes problems sometimes in that........ if a doctor or nurse suspected that a child was being abused, repeated visits to A&E, the history of an injury which doesn't fit to the actual injury etc. they cannot write down their suspicions until they can prove it. If their suspicions are wrong then the child's mother complains, demands public apologies, compensation etc. If they are right then you end up with a Victoria Climbe situation where everybody knew but nobody acted or wrote owt down.

Some of the funniest things I have come across in old medical records still make me laugh to this day for example.....

It was 1989 and I was a student nurse on a medical ward. We had a middle aged man who was brought in as an emergency with chest pain 6 times in 8 weeks. He was a regular and had a massive tome of medical records due to his excessive admissions and general timewasting. One of our consultants had written in his notes (in big red letters).....

'This man is a cardiac neurotic who is more likely to die from being hit by a bus than a heart attack.'

Several months later I was working on A&E and sure enough........ the same fella was brought in after a road traffic accident, sadly he died..

[cashman]

i can understand that lettie but its very strange to me that the doctor would be in the crap if he wasn,t retired, p.c. or not whats wrong with the truth? p.s. loved the bus one.

[Doug]

The truth is that the Human Rights Act and the Data Protection Act have made us all prisoners in our own societies. They where never really intended to bring common sense to its knees, but this is a confused ill led country full of idiots that will spend thousands persecuting the rambling truth of 20 years ago than rather admit that the system is at fault.

[mani]

agreeing with doug the human rights act and freedom of information act has acted as s double edged sword.

end of the day the docs have every rite to write if htey feel the patient is a needless worrier or if they suspect htey're constantly visitin hosp cause htey suspect they're not takin care of themselves -and esp in child abuse cases

isnt that one of the causes why that victoria climbe girl's case wasnt bought to attention cause the nurses/docs were afraid of gettin sued/being proven wrong

[cashman]

agree doug but being P.C. is crap if it means the truth is suppressed.

[jambutty]

To answer the thread question cashman, from just a personal viewpoint it is not wrong to tell the truth.

However what that doctor wrote was uncalled for. The medical notes are for medical issues. He was commenting on her morals and that was outside the remit of a doctor. Maybe he temporarily forgot the Hippocratic Oath, which boils down to “Do no harm.”

[accymel]

Well if it is fact then fine but you cant have personal opinions be put on records, my old doc from town i lived briefly had made several assumptions about me - typical stereotyping views, he wouldnt treat me for depression & co incided with suffering domestic violence at the time, he totally ignored me & said get over it, so when i escaped within inches of my life my health visitor advised that i should go back to doc for severe nerves & panic attacks when i said what he had done - she marched right in his office & demanded he'd treat me properly & that it was happening & shouted at him for ignoring symptoms for some time. Strangely he refused to accept my X's drinking problem as my discussion during my final consultation with him - hey ho what happened the X was rushed to hospital with liver problems a week later!! BUT his personal opinions of me had really effected they way i was treated as a patient & a person thus i wasn't getting the treatment i deserved!

So if that doc [mmmm maybe i should check my records to see if the bad doc wrote anything ] has or if had wrote anything making jepordising assumptions on paper as he did in person, then that seriously can effect that persons treatment [mmmm how do u go about checking my records??], you cant make assumptions that arn't proven fact or would be considered libel. If there is a real factual concern that medical people must know about then fine BUT surely they have got to tell that patient that its on record??!

The other thing is tho if you have an accident & you is claiming because if medical reports are required then they do apply to retrieve you medical records thus visable to other medical people & cases parties concerned.

[lettie]

I don't think it's wrong to tell the truth in medical records but the trick is to do it in a non-judgemental way. Social and psychological issues have a huge impact on physical health and such issues should be documented. Several years ago when I worked on community I had to visit a young lady with a rip roaring wound infection. The infection developed a few days after dishcharge from hospital and the wound was a sloughy smelly mess.

When I got to her house I couldn't help but notice the conditions in which she was living. The house was filthy, there were piles of unwashed dishes in the kitchen, the cooker and worktops were thick with grease and dirt. There was empty takeaway food containers with mouldy food in them all over the lounge. Old food and drink stains on the furniture and carpets, a mouldy dog turd on the hearth and the house smelled so bad that it was enough to turn even my stomach. Her husband sat all day in his vest at the computer and it was very obvious that neither of them made any effort to be clean. The body odour coming off them both was sickly and I did check that they had running water.

I cleaned the wound and organised some treatment and documented what I'd done in her notes. Later that day I went to the hospital and documented the exact state of the house and that I had advised them both about their personal hygiene. I also documented the treatment that I'd organised and that I would call back and visit again several days later.

About 3 months later my manager came to me with a solicitor's letter. The lass was trying to claim against the hospital for her wound infection, saying that it had developed in hospital and hadn't been treated. Due to my records in the medical notes the claim was kicked out....

We are not there to make personal judgements but sometimes the truth needs to be written, not only to cover us legally but to forewarn clinicians that there are social issues which may hamper recovery from treatment or may indeed be the cause of illness.

[accymel]

True Lettie not disagreeing with that reason, shame my domestic situ wasn't reported or taken seriously because this GP's presumption that i was young at the time & thought i was going for no reason not that there was an issue that did need attention lucky for health visitor proved the GP's pre judgement of me was wrong. Only thing is it has put me off going docs now unless its serious enough for me that could be too late because of my exp.

[Madhatter]

Telling the truth isn't wrong, but, sometimes your best not knowing the truth, it can ruin good things, and does you no good. I wouldn't advise going rooting around in your medical files.

[chav1]

Originally Posted by Madhatter

sometimes your best not knowing the truth

in that case..

accymel loves you

you are indeed very witty

i respect you

nerver had you down as a whiner

your poop dosnt stink

crabs dont make you itch

of course a stork delivered you

yellow snow is good for you

[accymel]

yeh right chav he thinks so regardless - i like to say is ..yeh like a hole in the head

[chav1]

forgot to put teh classic ..

aww of course size dosnt matter

[Madhatter]

you don't know me, have never met me so don't tell people what I think.

I only whine when I'm wronged, such as when i'm witch hunted.

Some people on here need to tell themselves some truth and stop lying that they are perfect.