OUTSIDERS can place information about you in your medical records WITHOUT your knowledge, an Evening Press investigation has revealed.

A local MP has pledged to raise questions in the House of Commons after we discovered that health professionals have the power to add notes, letters and statements - given to them by people without medical qualifications - to your records.

They can do this without telling you, if they consider the information to be relevant to your patient history.

The loophole in data protection was revealed after a 31-year-old York woman discovered a diary of her relationship with her ex-boyfriend had been added to her notes without her knowledge.

She only discovered the notes, written by her ex-partner's parents and chronicling her alleged fights and rows with him, when she paid to see her records and found it in the bundle. The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she was horrified by the discovery.

"I am concerned this would affect other people in the same way it has me. How could this happen without my knowledge?"

Health chiefs in York say that doctors and consultants can accept information given to them by third parties.

Patient groups in the city called for the rules to be tightened with clear guidance given to health professionals about what they should do when confronted with similar requests.

Selby MP John Grogan revealed he would be raising the issue in Parliament.

He said: "I will be asking a Parliamentary question to clarify the policy as regards medical records and in particular who is allowed to make additions to them."

Yvonne Reay, of public relations consultants Atlas, which represent the Patients Advisory and Liaison Service (PALS), said: "This can happen if the consultant thought it was relevant and appropriate. We assume that GPs have the same authority.

"But they would have to think very seriously before they took such an action and there must be a reason why any information would be thought to be relevant."

Helen Mackman, York Community Health Council's chief officer, said patients needed assurances. "This needs to be firmed up so doctors and health professionals know the implications," she said.

"You are raising a very important point here and patients do need assurances that their medical records are safe and confidential."

The Department of Health said patients who view their records can challenge information they believe to be incorrect.

But doctors do not have to inform them when such information is first included, and patients would only find out if they paid for the privilege of viewing their records.

York MP Hugh Bayley said: "I would want advice from doctors about whether the law should be changed, because some information from a third party is useful when, for instance, a doctor is treating a violent patient or a patient with psychiatric illness.

"If this information is to be added to a patient's records, the doctor must take full responsibility for that decision and must ensure that all the information is wholly relevant to the patient's medical condition and does not include general opinions, malicious or otherwise."

A spokesman for human rights group Liberty said: "The circumstances in this case seem very strange." He welcomed the Evening Press investigation, but added: "Doctors do appear to have the right to use information gained from third parties."

Updated: 11:10 Monday, June 23, 2003