Lost Maternity Records

NurseMoneySaver1122

Not sure if this is the best place to ask, but struggling to find out where to go!

I submitted a Subject Access Request for my maternity records (from daughters birth in 2021) and just been informed they cannot find them, and whilst they will continue to look, they have been looking for some time and so there is a chance they will not be found.

I understand this happens, but after a traumatic birth, I was looking for this for closure and answers to many unanswered questions.

Does anyone know the process for missing records? It just cannot be the case they are missing, apologise (actually, haven't even had that!), and that's it??

Brie

Sounds like a difficult situation to be in.   I hope you can sort it out.

Are you sure you are asking the right person/individual?  Do you need to SAR the maternity hospital associated with a main hospital?  The doctor(s)/midwives who attended?  The ambulance crew?  The local NHS trust?

Any time there's been an issue with a hospital (assuming that's what we're talking about) I always see some comment about contacting PALS.  It's never been a positive experience for me but must be working for some people.

fyi - just talking to someone today about what's in records and she pointed out that the local main hospitals only communicate with each other but not the smaller community hospitals and not the GPs.  So no one individual can log on to a computer and (assuming all the right access) get into the various places where records are hiding.  She mentioned as well that because the records we were asking about are from just a few days back that they are in limbo.  The hospital takes all the notes written on paper, sends them to a certain portion of the NHS trust who then scans them as pdfs and then need to attach them to the computer files.  If this is the same where you are/were then it's easy to think that the records for NMS1122 may well have been logged as a file for SMN2211 instead. 

So the fact is that someone was in emergency over the weekend may very well go back to emergency in a day or two and there is absolutely no one who will know 100% what happened on the previous visit.  Which of course may have dire consequences.  

Ergates

From the perspective of the SAR - an organisation cannot provide information it does not have.  If they've lost your records then that's it.

However, losing your records will almost certainly* be a data protection breach and could be reported to ICO.  The hospital *should* (and probably will) self-report once they confirm they've lost the records - you might wish to report it yourself.


* I can't think of any circumstances in which disposing of medical records from a year ago would be valid.

pinkshoes

What are you hoping your notes will help with specifically?

A friend of mine spent ages pondering over her maternity notes, looking for errors, someone or something to blame for the birth of her daughter being horrific. 

Her daughter is now 6 and what she found is that most people have births that go nothing like the plan, hospitals do what they think is best at the time, it might not feel right later, but the most important thing is not dwelling on the past and looking for answers, but focusing on the baby that grows up so quickly. 

I had 2 awful births. My eldest was 10lbs. I had an episiotomy.  There was no anaesthetists available so no epidural. I was give the pain injection (meptid) as a back up even though my notes said I didn't want that which then made me projectile vomit so much I couldn't hold my baby for hours.

Rather than going back over things, the best help was talking to other mums who had equally crappy experiences and realising that giving birth is a complicated and unpredictable event.

I nearly ended up with an emergency hysterectomy after my second and the whole experience was even worse than the first...

olgadapolga

Ergates said:

* I can't think of any circumstances in which disposing of medical records from a year ago would be valid.

Just to add, maternity records are supposed to be kept for 25 years.

There are a lot of people involved who handle the records. The last midwife seen (around day 10 postpartum) should have taken the records and returned them to the hospital, which could involve several more people along the way. There are a lot of places to search, which, unfortunately, does take time.

OP, I'm sorry that your experience was traumatic and I hope that your notes are found and that a midwife will be able to talk you through what happened.

400ixl

You could try contacting the PALS team for the hospital concerned to see if they can help in any way. Obviously they won't be able to magic up something if it is lost, but they will have the right contacts etc to help navigate the hospital trust organisation.

https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/hospitals/what-is-pals-patient-advice-and-liaison-service/

Good luck and hope they do find the notes.

TELLIT01

If they can't find them there is really nothing that can be done.  The likelihood is that they have been misfiled but with the amount of records filed every week, the chances of finding them are extremely slim.

NurseMoneySaver1122

pinkshoes said:

What are you hoping your notes will help with specifically?

A friend of mine spent ages pondering over her maternity notes, looking for errors, someone or something to blame for the birth of her daughter being horrific. 

Her daughter is now 6 and what she found is that most people have births that go nothing like the plan, hospitals do what they think is best at the time, it might not feel right later, but the most important thing is not dwelling on the past and looking for answers, but focusing on the baby that grows up so quickly. 

I had 2 awful births. My eldest was 10lbs. I had an episiotomy.  There was no anaesthetists available so no epidural. I was give the pain injection (meptid) as a back up even though my notes said I didn't want that which then made me projectile vomit so much I couldn't hold my baby for hours.

Rather than going back over things, the best help was talking to other mums who had equally crappy experiences and realising that giving birth is a complicated and unpredictable event.

I nearly ended up with an emergency hysterectomy after my second and the whole experience was even worse than the first...

Understanding certain things that happened during my labour and the week following whilst an inpatient. I was not in a great place psychologically and it was during the height of lockdown, so my partner wasn't able to advocate for me either. So there are lots of things I don't understand, and things I have questions about from a medical perspective, and with a background in Nursing, reading through my notes will certainly help with that. 

This is not for litigious gain, nor is it a finger pointing exercise. It is merely to understand certain things that happened and understand what is relevant to consider from it when/if planning more children in the future.

Manxman_in_exile

You can try asking PALS but as a former NHS manager of 20+ years I wouldn't expect them to be much help.

If I were you I would write to the Trust Secretary of the NHS trust that managed the birth and ask what can be done.  (I can't believe that no records at all exist.)  They will be the trust executive directly responsible for data protection issues and complaints etc.

Just as an example, this trust lists the trust secretary on their website on the same page as the board of directors and governors:   Who we are (jpaget.nhs.uk)

In the first instance just write a polite letter explaining what you have asked for and that you have been told that the records cannot be found.  Ask him what the next step is.  (Depending on what he tells you, you may or may not want to pursue a formal complaint about the missing records.)