Holiday park, data protection.

Xenophon

Hi folks, not sure if this is definitely the correct place to put this new thread.

My mum's partner, now retired, went to a holiday park, best not name it, for 4 nights. They were suppose to go together but my mum wasn't feeling too well so he went off himself as it was already booked of course.

Now he was suppose to be back Friday morning but he never turned up. Mum hadn't heard from him, his phone was off, and when she rang the park they said he had left that morning, and had checked out. So as you can imagine my mum started to panic, assuming he perhaps had had an accident. I looked up on the M5 website and no accident reported M5 south. In the late afternoon she rang 101 and alerted the police. In the evening the police had found him in hospital. Apparently he had had a heart attack of sorts and collapsed at the park, and injured himself in the fall. The park had rang an ambulance and they had taken him to the local hospital that morning

Now they knew this and did not tell my mum when she rang twice, just saying he had left the park. Of course my mum was pretty furious as you can imagine and demanded know why she had not been told he had been taken to the local hospital after they had got an ambulance for him. They said it was data protection. Is this correct? Seems rather cruel that my mum was not told and spent the day frantically worrying.

WeAreGhosts

Without getting into Data Protection laws, you would think that the park would have a duty of care to their guest and contact that person's next of kin to inform them he had been taken ill.

I'd write to head office to ask for an explanation and emphasise the amount of stress they caused.

glentoran99

WeAreGhosts wrote: »

Without getting into Data Protection laws, you would think that the park would have a duty of care to their guest and contact that person's next of kin to inform them he had been taken ill.

I'd write to head office to ask for an explanation and emphasise the amount of stress they caused.

how would they know his next of kin?

indesisiv

As it is "mum's partner" then there is no official link??
Could they really be allowed to tell someone who isn't a relative that they had been taken to hospital? To be fair on their records it could just say that they had left the holiday park.

Also wouldn't it be up to the hospital to identify next of kin? (Although that may not necessarily be your mother)

WeAreGhosts wrote: »

Without getting into Data Protection laws, you would think that the park would have a duty of care to their guest and contact that person's next of kin to inform them he had been taken ill.

The park had a duty of care, which they enacted. The guest was injured so treatment was given and said guest was taken to hospital to recover. I am not sure that it would be their duty to nitify someone who isn't related to the guest?

Xenophon

Okay, thanks people. My mum has spoken to head office and asked for an explanation in writing which they intend doing. They are sticking with the data protection reason. My mum's name was actually on the booking as she was suppose to go also. Why the hospital didn't notify his daughter, his next of kin, is another curious issue.

The police also said that they should have applied some common sense as it wasted their time, but not sure if common sense overrides the data protection law.

DevilsAdvocate1

I don't think they enacted duty of care at all. What if he'd died alone when his family could have been there?

sheramber

Did the booking form ask for is next of kin? If not how would they have known who to contact?

When my husband went into hospital he was asked who was his next of kin- myself. He was then asked if they could give me information about him if I asked.

p00hsticks

sheramber wrote: »

Did the booking form ask for is next of kin? If not how would they have known who to contact?
.

I can't ever recall being asked for details of next of kin when checking into a hotel / holiday accomodation.

PasturesNew

These parks are often staffed by young temporary staff, in their first summer job.... it's possible the phone was answered by one of those. Meanwhile, in another part of the Park other staff were dealing with a man who had collapsed and they called an ambulance.

Maybe nobody tied the two together, and everybody "assumed" somebody else should/would do something and it was super busy with all these new staff and them being freshly/newly open for the season and nobody mentioned it in ear shot of the person who took the "is he still there?" phone call.

It could easily slip through the net when you look at the dynamics and logistics of holiday park staffing, acreage and events going on.

Anybody popping him into the ambulance probably assumed the police/hospital would work out who he was/get in touch with relevant people.

Even if somebody realised he was a recent holidaymaker, he'd booked out by then, so it might've been assumed that "he's booked out, now the Hospital have him, job done".

iammumtoone

The person answering the phone would not necessarily know the details the computer would just confirm guest had checked out which was relayed to your Mother.

How far did your Mother push for an answer, did she just ask it he was still there or did she go into detail that she was worried he hadn't returned and was about to call the police, if the later I think they have failed, at that point the person answering the phone should have made more enquiries or passed the call onto someone more senior.

I don't think they can hide behind data protection as if that was the case surely they shouldn't have even be able to tell people if he had checked out or not.

On the plus side whilst I think the park are in the wrong how they acted after the incident and I can understand your mothers anger, they did call an ambulance and made sure her partner got to hospital.

Xenophon

PasturesNew wrote: »

These parks are often staffed by young temporary staff, in their first summer job.... it's possible the phone was answered by one of those. Meanwhile, in another part of the Park other staff were dealing with a man who had collapsed and they called an ambulance.

Maybe nobody tied the two together, and everybody "assumed" somebody else should/would do something and it was super busy with all these new staff and them being freshly/newly open for the season and nobody mentioned it in ear shot of the person who took the "is he still there?" phone call.

It could easily slip through the net when you look at the dynamics and logistics of holiday park staffing, acreage and events going on.

Anybody popping him into the ambulance probably assumed the police/hospital would work out who he was/get in touch with relevant people.

Even if somebody realised he was a recent holidaymaker, he'd booked out by then, so it might've been assumed that "he's booked out, now the Hospital have him, job done".

Yes I think it was a general balls-up and a lack of communication on their side. Instead of admitting a mistake and apologising, they have hid behind the data protection act.