time off work for hospital appointment

FBaby

You've already been provided a number of excellent suggestions:

These ideas have been put forward already -

• Ask a specific manager in HR to verify the letter for you and to notify your line manager
• Block out the aspects of the letter which reveal confidential information
• Rearrange the appointment for the next date on which you can get annual leave
• See if someone who has leave on that date is prepared to swap with you
• See if your GP will write you a letter confirming a medial appointment

Surely one of these will be an easier option for you?

I would add that you could contact your consultant's secretary, explain the situation and ask if she's mind emailing you a confirmation of appointment. Her email address will be the Trust she works for rather than the clinic, making it impossible to identify exactly what your problem is. Even if say your employer is so clued in that they can put two and two together that the Trust is a mental health one, you could be going there for a number of non embarassing reasons.

The fact that you haven't commented on any of the suggestions above which clearly would resolve the issue makes me wonder if indeed you really have the appointment on the day/time you are asking to have off....

arbroath_lass

FBaby wrote: »

The fact that you haven't commented on any of the suggestions above which clearly would resolve the issue makes me wonder if indeed you really have the appointment on the day/time you are asking to have off....

I think they haven't commented on the the suggestions is they were unhappy with the response that they are not entitled to time off and feel everyone has "had a go" at them. As per their comments on the other thread and the advice given there.

BTW the OP felt the trust name would "give away" their problem so an email address from the same trust would be no good to them.

kittykitten

Is there any need to provide a letter on such headed paper that gives away the name of the NHS trust, which appears to be the issue that is causing the problem here as it is the name of the trust that will identify the nature of the appointment?

I work for the NHS, in our trust we get 2 kinds of headed paper - one is standard NHS headed paper, the other is trust and department specific. I see no reason why the OP can't just phone the department that they have an appointment with, explain the situation, and ask if they will kindly reprint the appointment letter on non-trust-specific headed paper. This would give the details of the appointment without giving away the nature of the appointment.

SarEl

kittykitten wrote: »

Is there any need to provide a letter on such headed paper that gives away the name of the NHS trust, which appears to be the issue that is causing the problem here as it is the name of the trust that will identify the nature of the appointment?

I work for the NHS, in our trust we get 2 kinds of headed paper - one is standard NHS headed paper, the other is trust and department specific. I see no reason why the OP can't just phone the department that they have an appointment with, explain the situation, and ask if they will kindly reprint the appointment letter on non-trust-specific headed paper. This would give the details of the appointment without giving away the nature of the appointment.

That was also suggested!

It seems that, if we are honest, the only acceptable response would have been - the law says you don't have to explain to your employer why you want time off during working hours, you are entitled to go where you want when you want, and your employer can't stop you. Unfortunately, that answer wasn't available because it would be wrong.

kittykitten

SarEl wrote: »

That was also suggested!

sorry, I must have missed the earlier suggestion that was the same as mine.

I know how hard it is for me to get time off for hospital appointments (evidence provided or otherwise) and I work for the NHS! I'm amazed my patients ever manage to turn up for appointments in the middle of my working day, yet I and my colleague consistently struggle to fill the early (8.00am & 8.30am) appointments that we offer - make of that what you will!

noelphobic

FBaby wrote: »

The fact that you haven't commented on any of the suggestions above which clearly would resolve the issue makes me wonder if indeed you really have the appointment on the day/time you are asking to have off....

I had an appointment yesterday which I attended. I am grateful to the people who gave me good advice here but don't think there is anything to be gained by me posting in this thread again, so will not be doing so.

Someone will no doubt get great pleasure from having the last word, perhaps even someone who previously said that they weren't posting on this thread again and then in fact did so. Be my guest because I am definitely out.

Poppy9

kittykitten wrote: »

, yet I and my colleague consistently struggle to fill the early (8.00am & 8.30am) appointments that we offer - make of that what you will!

You have no pensioners in your clinic:D:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I used to have to go for regular blood tests and the clinic opened at 8am so I could go on my way to work. The oldies were there queuing at 7am. Luckily I found out the service was available between 1-2pm so I could then go in my lunch hour. It was empty there so I was seen straight away.

BobQ

j.e.j. wrote: »

100% agree with you ^^^
Inevitably someone will whisper it to someone else "in confidence, you understand.." who will let slip or drop hints 'in confidence' to some other person who is asking questions, and before you know it, the whole team knows, or at least has a chinese-whispers version of the reason you are absent from work.

It would actually be very difficult for the employee to take any action concerning breach of confidentiality in these instances, because how would you prove which person it was who told someone?

There are many, many reasons why medical details must remain private (unless of course you don't mind people knowing). And private does not mean telling the manager, or even HR for that matter.

This may be of interest:

http://www.tuc.org.uk/tuc/privacyatwork.pdf

I am not sure that you can say it is difficult to show breach of confidentiality, the DPA applies to the organisaton processing data and not just to individuals. Also individuals failing to apply the firm's rules does not excuse the employer from protecting the data.

Most firms are quite sensitive about complying with DPA. They must not keep sensitive information longer than necessary for the purpose and should keep it separate from absence records.

If the appointment letter was indicative of a medical condition I presume that the firm would not want to keep such data on file just to check that having a few hours off work was justified?
All that is needed is that a single trusted individual (eg in OH) certifies the request is/is not reasonable. But I am no expect on the DPA.

j.e.j.

Just as a by the by, I noticed when my friend showed me their hospital appointment letter, it does state which department it is and the address header does indeed give away what sort of medical condition it is.

Savvy_Sue

j.e.j. wrote: »

It would actually be very difficult for the employee to take any action concerning breach of confidentiality in these instances, because how would you prove which person it was who told someone?

There's nothing to stop a general 'reminder', however, that the reasons for absence are on a 'need to know' basis.

And it's not impossible. I once managed a small team, and one member had weekly appointments (made the time up through the rest of the week). I never knew what these were for, where they were, or how long they would continue. HR told me they were happening, that was all I needed to know. After a while this person said the appointments were reducing in frequency, I said good, end of discussion.

I now work in a small organisation: one of my colleagues told me personally that she'd had several miscarriages which explained the 'odd' days she'd had sick: I think some of my colleagues knew earlier, but I didn't. Then we've had several people take extended periods of sick leave (me included). I have no idea of the reasons for some of them, and only the vaguest idea with others. And when I got back after the shattered shoulder incident, I found that most of my colleagues had no idea how serious the injury had been or that I'd had to have a shoulder replacement!

If it's a minor thing, we tend to share. We all know one of our colleagues was up-chucking just before Christmas, but that they'd recovered enough to go on holiday (and yes, we do believe them!) But if someone asks me why a colleague is off sick, and I know, I can say "I couldn't possibly say".