I’ve reported my friend for an NHS confidentiality breech

I work in the NHS, they have 28 days to respond to a complaint. So you should hear soon. Accessing patient records when you have no need to, which she did is classed as gross misconduct, at the very least she’ll get a warning. However given the nature of what she’s done she is looking at potential dismissal. It’s her own fault as she will no the consequences of what she’s done, don’t loose any sleep you did the right thing!

This is exactly what should happen

So you’d trust that someone who thinks it is OK to do this - and who will have been actively told in all of her training that this is gross misconduct - would not do it again after a friend talks to her?

No way. All that would happen is that she would not tell that friend again she was doing this. She needs dealing with properly. No one wants someone to lose their job lightly but this is gross misconduct.

She’s a sticky beak and is in the wrong job.

Knowing that your medical records aren’t private and are being looked it by somebody you know and shared is harming. Hugely so. It could put her off seeking help for all sorts of things.

If her actions cause her to lose her job, then that’s her own fault. You asked her and bold as brass she shrugged it off. Despite it being illegal, and also in breach of her work policies, she didn’t even have the sense to apologise. That’s on her.

Your friends are probably coming from a position of disappointment at the fact they’ll no longer have access to ‘the gossip’. They’ve picked the wrong side, and frankly if they don’t have a change of heart they probably weren’t ever your real friends anyway.

I’m so sorry she stole the joy of telling people yourself from you x

That’s quite lacking in imagination on your part. This woman has not only read OP’s medical notes when she shouldn’t have, but has also shared what she found there with other people! If OP wanted to tell her OH or her mum first that should have been her prerogative and she now cannot do that. She’s lost a once-only opportunity here because her “friend” was nosy and gossipy. If OP wanted or needed to end the pregnancy, or were to suffer a loss, she’ll now have to deal with telling more people or in the first scenario possibly not feeling able to do what she needed to because of other people already knowing.

Imagine if it were your news. Imagine it were another medical condition- mental health or cancer or sexual health. Would you still fail to see that harm was caused?

My friend works in my GP surgery. When I joined, he requested his access to my records be revoked on the system for precisely this reason - because it's not appropriate for him to have access to my records and because that way there could be no question about whether or not he had accessed them.

@BundleOfCookies Do your friends know that she looked them up also?

Do they know that their "friend" now knows about any:
physical problem they are or have gotten treatment for?
psychological problems such as anxiety, depression bi-polar are now hers to share with whomever?

They need to understand that she accessed their medical files. Basically, one needs to assume she knows everything.

I would bet your friends just think it's you she has accessed. If they know and are still pissed-off at you, they are lousy friends. Just think about when she decides to look up their spouses, children. She'd be a vocal Daily Mail.

I don't work in the NHS I work in the justice system but similarly the information is sacrosanct it's made so clear when you join. I have led similar investigations and have discussed people for similar even when there was no evidence they'd shared anything. You cannot access highly confidential sensitive information without professional cause. In our line of work you could also face a criminal charge of misconduct in a public office, especially if you share it. I've seen colleagues go to prison over the years (not many it's not common behaviour!) , I'm not sure whether that applies to medical information, we hold a lot of police intel etc.

The. Law. Has. Been. Broken.

And not a minor one.

Are you the OP's "friend"?

There’s a big news story on this issue on the BBC News today. Someone accessed the medical records of the poor people who were murdered in Nottingham.

the families consider that a ‘gross invasion of privacy and civil liberty’.

They are right and so are you.

Send your mutual friends this
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c39vd2kjj3lo

I suspect if they’d been on the end of it, they’d be as outraged as you.

As someone else said, you have not got her sacked, she has done that herself.

Good luck with your pregnancy, don’t let this mar it. You’ll make a shed load of new mum friends soon.

Oh, the victim blaming card rolls eyes

To be a victim, you need to have been harmed. OP and others may claim otherwise, but I'm not convinced there was any harm done here, at least not that couldn't have been resolved with a stern conversation.

She absolutely should be sacked for it, and she'll be lucky if she's not prosecuted

Anyone taking her side is an idiot op

She needs to leave the job, not as a punishment but because she doesn't seem to understand that while looking at confidential information is wrong, it's another level entirely to share it with others. If she's willing to do that, surely it's evidence that she doesn't think that snooping is anything to be ashamed of. She needs to go to protect others in the future. It's not vindictive.

If she's found to have breached confidentiality rules then the woman absolutely should be sacked. It's not the OP's fault that the woman is a nosy cow who couldn't keep her mouth shut.

The OP isn't getting her sacked, if that's what happens it will be because the NHS has followed its procedures for staff who break the rules once they find out about it.

What a strange victim blaming view of the situation

You should have called her out on it publicly, but getting her sacked is really a huge over-reaction, and I can't believe so many people are vindictive enough to support this.

She deserves to lose her job. What a vile woman she is. Not only snooping, but telling other people about your pregnancy!!

Do you have any of the conversations on text message to show as proof?

It's bad enough that she's looked you up on the system but what on earth was she thinking to share your pregnancy news with your (hopefully ex) friends?! Shocking behaviour.

Did she elaborate why she needed to know what's going on? She's not a doctor is she? Best of luck with the pregnancy, and congrats x

Someone will look at her electronic trail and she’ll be investigated, depending on how you filed the complaint it may not have arrived with the correct team.
They’ll take this very seriously and she’ll probably be interviewed, she’ll be investigated whilst continuing to work. Unless this is a regular occurrence and she has multiple offences, then she might be suspended pending investigation.
you might be able to retract your complaint but it sounds like she’s a risk to others privacy.

I saw people in the Civil Service marched out for this, the "men in black" as we called the external HR Inspectors would appear at your desk, you would be supervised collecting all your personal effects, your desk impounded, taken to a private office & within 5 minutes be escorted out of the building & not be allowed to speak to anyone or to contact them outside the office, you would also be read your rights similar to when you are arrested. I would imagine the collecting of computer data now would only take minutes, but the going through it all manually could take time, I would think you should hear something acknowledging your complaint fairly fast, but for a resolution of your complaint would take maybe a month. Very often, it appears in the local paper if someone has been dismissed for this kind of thing to act as a deterrent against other staff doing it.

You definitely did the right thing. For her to find out about the pregnancy, she has been periodically scrolling through your records, along with probably countless other people, all your friends, maybe her extended family, her neighbours, colleagues…..

She is a liability and deserves it.

You are in the right. I'm sorry your other friends have taken her side. They sound like clowns too. Good luck wih your pregnancy.

She wouldn’t be allowed to access patient records unless she has a reason to be working with that patient. She can’t just let nosiness get the better of her and have a look and then tell everyone. Imagine a friend had an Sti and the damage it would do when she discusses it. I I can see how hurt you are and she isn’t your friend and you have done the right thing.