GP’s notes contain inaccurate allegations that could be interpreted as fact

[BigLes]

Hi, I’ve finally been able to access my child’s records. I’m dismayed to see that our child’s mother has, under the pretence of presenting our child as suffering from vomiting, made allegations to the doctor of: ending our relationship because she refused to have an abortion (it was due to DV on her part), introducing our child to my partner without her agreement, not having a good relationship with our child, only attempting to increase the time our child spends with me so that I can reduce maintenance payments, drug abuse. Also included is the statement that, 50% of the time, he vomits the day after seeing me (ie. Once a week). And that he doesn’t vomit when he hasn’t seen me (disproven by other entires in his medical record where he has been presented with various vomiting viruses).

The allegations are presented in the record in such a way as it is impossible to distinguish whether they are factual, the GP’s opinion, or the mother’s unsubstantiated allegation.

As a reminder this information was added to his medical record after being presented with being ill/vomiting. I’m unable to corroborate whether my child was truly ill or not. One can infer from the notes that there is a suggestion of poisoning (whether prompted by her or by the GP I do not know).

I suspect the motivation for taking him to the doctors and making these untruthful allegations was to try and get these allegations recorded so that they could be used in some way as evidence.

Does anyone else have experience with this matter and can anyone advise on how I go about rectifying his record (on the grounds that the information is inaccurate, not clinically relevant, and likely to cause significant emotional harm when he turns 16(ish) and has access to his own medical records)?

 

[Resolute]

This is very complex, I do not know how it will be impacted by the fact that this data is not recorded on your record.

I have had a read but do not have time to get through all the details. This seems like the relevant source:

A guide to individual rights

ico.org.uk

Here is an excerpt:

When is data inaccurate?

The UK GDPR does not give a definition of the term accuracy. However, the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) states that personal data is inaccurate if it is incorrect or misleading as to any matter of fact.

Right to rectification

ico.org.uk

Please keep us updated on how your efforts go, I think lots of us are in similar situations. Please also share how you finally got hold of the records, congrats on that.

 

[BirminghamUK]

Hi, I’ve finally been able to access my child’s records. I’m dismayed to see that our child’s mother has, under the pretence of presenting our child as suffering from vomiting, made allegations to the doctor of: ending our relationship because she refused to have an abortion (it was due to DV on her part), introducing our child to my partner without her agreement, not having a good relationship with our child, only attempting to increase the time our child spends with me so that I can reduce maintenance payments, drug abuse. Also included is the statement that, 50% of the time, he vomits the day after seeing me (ie. Once a week). And that he doesn’t vomit when he hasn’t seen me (disproven by other entires in his medical record where he has been presented with various vomiting viruses).

The allegations are presented in the record in such a way as it is impossible to distinguish whether they are factual, the GP’s opinion, or the mother’s unsubstantiated allegation.

As a reminder this information was added to his medical record after being presented with being ill/vomiting. I’m unable to corroborate whether my child was truly ill or not. One can infer from the notes that there is a suggestion of poisoning (whether prompted by her or by the GP I do not know).

I suspect the motivation for taking him to the doctors and making these untruthful allegations was to try and get these allegations recorded so that they could be used in some way as evidence.

Does anyone else have experience with this matter and can anyone advise on how I go about rectifying his record (on the grounds that the information is inaccurate, not clinically relevant, and likely to cause significant emotional harm when he turns 16(ish) and has access to his own medical records)?

I've got the same issue. Ex has been logging claims with the child's go as a claim by itself and it is noted and or as a claim alongside a natural development of various symptoms which include vomiting, waking up in the middle of the night (even a claim has been logged that when our daughter was 2 years old she would wake up in the middle of the night and say 'yukky daddy' or start crying at the mention of daddy), loss of appetite, breathing issues, anxiety, some of it real symptoms and this also created opportunities for the mother to add extra bits in and say its related to the fathers past abuse, the contact centre visits and make it look like there was either a problem with the father or a problem with a contact centre or a problem with the frequency of contact or travelling to the contact centre itself. I mean evil forces have thought of everything and the mother has decided to go for this narrative. I really do they reap what they so.

In the past when I got advice on this I was told :

These are allegations logged with the GP, the GP has a responsibility to note these concerns, same goes for social services, kiddy centres, the mothers log it everywhere possible and then request some kind of letter from the establishment saying the mother is claiming this that on behalf of the daughter etc, this adds some kind of authorative or official spin to it. Once they have the i.e. Medical records and these official letters, they then add it to the bundle or present it to the court in a way so that it fits the narrative.

I haven't seen my kid for over 2 years now and in these past 2 years the usual allegations are continuously being logged. We can see this being logged because as a parent with parental responsibility I have been requesting daughters medical records regularly just to see what daughter has been going through and what the mother has been logging.
Allegations are very shocking.

Someone is advising ex and has been since I started my COA application in 2018, my ex when I knew her wasn't that smart enough to think for herself like that especially in ways that would benefit her in a legal court setting but I knew she was capable of lying before the split but after we started cohabiting. My mistake for wanting a child so early in the cohabiting relationship.

The only defence you have is that
- these are merely allegations logged by the mom
- and that there is no medical scientific or pscychological proof that these symptoms can be attributed to fault of the father.

The ex's barrister will word it and play it in a convincing way to fit their narrative.
Either you have a judge with his head screwed on and the above 2 reason suffices or you get your own barrister and counter the ex's barristers narrative.. And level the playground. Unfortunately in these one sided cases where we as lips, we can't fund our own barristers..

 

[Km5]

Hi Big Les,

Yes probably like many other Dads,I have experienced my Ex using the services of Doctor's to try and case build before or during proceedings. It's an appalling waste of their precious resources and time but my Ex like yours and others deemed it worthwhile in the belief the Doctor would be aiding their crusade to suggest children suffer when with Dads.

In my own case at the FHDRA my Ex alerted my to this by saying directly that she now had medical evidence to prove how our son was suffering during and after time spent. She was asked to briefly explain this by the Court Legal Adviser and was told very clearly that submitting Medical notes did not prove anything for if their was genuine concern by the Doctors they would intervene in other ways.

Her point made me request my sons full patient history and notes from the Surgery and it was quite shocking what they revealed. A perfectly well child was taken to the Doctors on 12 visits during a nine month period post separation and pre final hearing. Similar to yours the Mother suggested every time he came to me he would come back ill / tired / with nightmares / would fall asleep in school the next day or would have mental breakdowns due to spending time with me. Even a simple 1 off minor nosebleed resulted in a visit which was suggested he must surely have banged his head.

I was shocked by what I read - as we all are !

I rang the Surgery and asked to speak to the Senior Partner. I explained the situation in that Child Arrangement proceedings in the Family Court were ongoing and that to all claims by the mother were false or untrue to the reality of a perfectly normal 6 year old boys health.

The Doctor explained they are duty bound to record and make note on record anything given by the Mother BUT that does not mean they believe or certainly side with the Mothers position. By making him aware of on going Court Proceedings gave them a fuller picture and my conversation with him and my concern was also recorded on our sons notes.

He did rightly say that Doctors and other medical providers are not there to be used or involved in Family law cases but he also assured me that the medical notes of our son could not be used or deemed as evidence against me in Court - they simply have to record what the mother said.

At the end of the conversation he did say off the record he greatly sympathised with Dads in this position and with concerns such as these knew that it was a very un level playing field.

We used the patient medical notes in the Final Hearing in Statements, claiming they were false allegations and claims made by the Mother and a letter from his school to suggested illness directly after time with me was totally wrong blitzed her position.

Big Les I would speak to the Surgery and the Senior Doctor and explain as I did what the Mothers motives are and simply correct any inaccuracies. They will tell you like me they will not get involved in Child Arrangement disputes but they will record on notes your concerns.

My Ex doesn't give up easily and after a Final Hearing which went my way she lasted only 10 days into the Order before making allegations of sexual misconduct against me to our son. After the referral being fully investigated by the Police and Social Services resulting in no case to answer she then took our son back to the Doctor twice and asked for him the be medically examined. She repeated all the allegations again to them even though she had been officially told the case had been closed and was still asking for a full examination.
The Doctors had got the measure of her a declined saying only Social Services could make that request of them.

Her reaction was to move Surgeries presumably hoping a fresh start would get the result she hoped for for someone to believe she is the most important and superior parent in her long quest to have my time with him restricted in anyway possible.
It's the same tactic with Solicitors, Barristers, CAFCASS, Schools, Social Services and the Police - she burns through them all and none have believed or stuck with her.

It's sadly quite usual Big Les but I'd recommend speaking to the Doctors just to give them your own version for them to note which they will.

 

[BigLes]

This is very complex, I do not know how it will be impacted by the fact that this data is not recorded on your record.

I have had a read but do not have time to get through all the details. This seems like the relevant source:

A guide to individual rights

ico.org.uk

Here is an excerpt:

When is data inaccurate?

The UK GDPR does not give a definition of the term accuracy. However, the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) states that personal data is inaccurate if it is incorrect or misleading as to any matter of fact.

Right to rectification

ico.org.uk

Please keep us updated on how your efforts go, I think lots of us are in similar situations. Please also share how you finally got hold of the records, congrats on that.

Wrt how I got hold of the records: there is a template on this website. I submitted it alongside the PR Order and some other paperwork required by the doctor.

Thanks for the additional info mate

 

[Ash]

Hi, I’ve finally been able to access my child’s records. I’m dismayed to see that our child’s mother has, under the pretence of presenting our child as suffering from vomiting, made allegations to the doctor of: ending our relationship because she refused to have an abortion (it was due to DV on her part), introducing our child to my partner without her agreement, not having a good relationship with our child, only attempting to increase the time our child spends with me so that I can reduce maintenance payments, drug abuse. Also included is the statement that, 50% of the time, he vomits the day after seeing me (ie. Once a week). And that he doesn’t vomit when he hasn’t seen me (disproven by other entires in his medical record where he has been presented with various vomiting viruses).

The allegations are presented in the record in such a way as it is impossible to distinguish whether they are factual, the GP’s opinion, or the mother’s unsubstantiated allegation.

As a reminder this information was added to his medical record after being presented with being ill/vomiting. I’m unable to corroborate whether my child was truly ill or not. One can infer from the notes that there is a suggestion of poisoning (whether prompted by her or by the GP I do not know).

I suspect the motivation for taking him to the doctors and making these untruthful allegations was to try and get these allegations recorded so that they could be used in some way as evidence.

Does anyone else have experience with this matter and can anyone advise on how I go about rectifying his record (on the grounds that the information is inaccurate, not clinically relevant, and likely to cause significant emotional harm when he turns 16(ish) and has access to his own medical records)?

Yes. My ex claimed the same - except it was diarrhoea rather than vomiting. Making out I was poisoning him basically! What I did was contact the school and ask for a copy of his attendance records for the past two years and then used that as evidence in my final statement to show he had only been off sick twice in the past two years, so can't have had diarrhoea after seeing me every time as primary schools require them to be off for 24 hours if they have diarrhoea or sickness.

Of course you don't tell your ex this, you keep it under your hat.

So first thing is, email the headteacher at the school, mark it private and confidential, and request copies of your child's attendance records for the past year or two.

 

[Ash]

Agree with Km5 about contacting the GP - I also did that. Ideally do it in writing, politely and courteously, with what you want them to know, what information you would like, and offer to go in and meet with them. I did this and they just wrote back and didn't need me to go in and meet them. Because in addition to the other claims, my ex claimed my son had a particular medical condition when he was perfectly fit and well (and claimed I had put him in danger by doing something that could affect this medical condition). It took me four letters to track down the new GP but one of them replied and confirmed my son did not have this diagnosis and was perfectly fit. Which was also very good evidence for my final hearing (juxtaposed with my ex's accusatory and untruthful email).

So the things to ask are

1) When the GP last saw your child
2) How often the child has been seen in the past year
3) Any recent or signicant diagnoses for the child or any concerns by the Doctor

And also inform them that you have concerns the child is under stress due to the fact family court proceedings are in progress regarding him being able to spend time with you, since this was prevented.

I got a very good letter back and it was clear the GP could see exactly what the Mother was up to and was not impressed! Not only that, turns out he'd hardly ever been taken to the Doctors.

A tip - don't ask for full medical records on your child. There is some kind of protocol whereby a Doctor does not have to release full medical records - but they do have to respond to health enquiries. So you ask for specifics, rather than full medical history. Like any recent or significant diagnoses, when last seen etc.

It is a shock, but try to detach from the unpleasantness and work on putting good evidence together and a strategy.

 

[BigLes]

FYI - I managed to obtain my child’s complete records. Perhaps I was just lucky. I also have access to the online portal now.