AIBU to feel appalled by staff accessing murdered children’s records?

How could the computer know that it's in error though, and not a legitimate reason? It's up to the person doing the search, anywhere I've worked at least.

Accidental post

Is it possible for someone to access the wrong record in error? There must be checks that stop you from pulling up the wrong file i guess, as that could cause a serious issue. I'm just thinking there's loads of people with the same name and dob, and you could type in a wrong nhs number. How do staff prevent errors?

I used to many, many years ago, and I did do.
Thankfully it was dealt with very well.

From my experience people did it without any malicious intent but that obviously still doesn’t make it right.

I haven’t been part of the NHS for a very long time but I doubt much has changed in terms of records being accessed for wrong reasons, although I’m sure there’s much more training now.

So this story hasn't shocked me, but like I said I’m glad it has been put in the public eye and that the staff has been punished appropriately so people know that it is a serious offence.

I used to work (retired now) for a public service. We could access anyone's details in the UK through our computer terminals.

Lesson number one on induction was if you ever search for a person's details, it will be logged and unless you have no legitimate business reason for the access, you will be sacked. No if's no buts no maybes.

As a manager, every day I would get a read out of whose accounts had been accessed, and by who. If any access seemed odd (accessing people out of our area, accessing people who shared a name with a member of staff ect) they would be highlighted and I would have to check why the account was accessed.

I would also have to find out why a,% of cases not highlighted had been accessed.

And yes, my regional manager would get similar reports about what we, their area mangers, were accessing.

I'm gobsmacked that your trust didn't take this issue seriously.

Well they’ve been appropriately punished and hopefully it will make other people think twice about doing it.

How do you know it does on a lot more than people realise? If you work in the NHS please can you report your observations.

I work for a Gov dept and it’s a sackable offence (and vast majority are sacked) to look up records that you have no business to look up. So a neighbour, a friend, an ex. You’re warned about it, not sure why people risk their job for it.

Ah, but if you find out one of them had just had an abortion, or been to the rape crisis centre, or had an HIV test, or cancer scare, you can flog that to the Mail.

Absolutely disgusting behaviour.

Me personally no I wouldn’t, because I probably wouldn’t have a clue what any of it meant.

But I can understand why some people in a medical profession may be curious enough to want to read the medical reports.

That doesn’t mean I condone it, because I don’t.

I’m glad it’s been bought to light and they are being punished for it.

bad enough to look at your family's results let alone looking up the notes in this case.
there must have been an explanation

i remember more than 20 years ago a colleague was checking her colleagues records to see if she did actually attend hospital, which i found awful.

it just shows you we trust our lives in the hands of completely morally rotten people

i was totally shocked
just appalled.

I know the rules around accessing patient records.

All I’m saying is that it goes on a lot more than people probably realise and it isn’t always for ghoulish reasons.

However, like I said, it IS wrong what these staff
members did and they are right be punished for it.

This has made the news because it is a huge public case, but staff accessing records of patients they aren’t directly involved in probably goes on countless times in every NHS hospital around the Country every single day.

These staff are rightfully being made an example of, but what they’ve actually done is probably quite common.

Like I said, I bet there are millions of NHS practitioners out there who have read records of patients they aren't directly involved in the care of.

Your thoughts on this taken from the statement made by Nottingham University Trust

“To access the medical records of our patients without a legitimate reason is totally unacceptable and we are doing all we can to identify where and how that has happened. I hope that the families, staff and our communities feel reassured by the outcomes so far, that we are taking this seriously and will continue to do so.”
She added: “It is essential that access to patient records is lawful, justified and directly related to their role. By accessing records inappropriately, staff are damaging the valuable contributions made by those colleagues providing care for those patients. In those cases where it does happen, I hope that this is a very clear reminder that we will take appropriate action.”
The words that jump out at me are "lawful, justified, and directly related to their role" They have been sacked, can't see how this fits with your view that "what they did is not alarmist or strange it's just made the news because it's a big case, that's all" I am sure that the family and friends of the victims would vhemently disagree with you, in fact the statement from NUH acknowleged this In a statement, Shehmar said: “The families of Ian, Grace and Barnaby have had to endure much pain and heartache, and I am truly sorry that the actions of some of our staff have added to that.

I’m pretty confident that the majority of professionals you have seen in your lifetime, GPs, doctors, dentists, opticians, radiographers, and any other specialists in hospitals or secondary settings, will have all read medical notes of patients they have not been directly involved in.

I imagine a lot of NHS staff who haven’t been directly involved in your care will have read your records too for various reasons.

What these individuals did is nothing alarmist or strange, it’s just made the news because it’s a big case, that’s all.

It’s is drummed into us not to look at data that isn’t relevant to us or our role. I’d be questioning what culture is in that trust as well as sackings for those that looked.

I personally would not want to be treated by someone who had so little respect for patient confidentiality. It is the central tenet for the doctor/patient relationship and indeed for anyone employed in health care.

I agree they should be sacked and they shouldn’t have done what they did. I agree they abused their position within the Trust to gain access to the records and they should face the consequences.

However, it’s not really that surprising is it that medical professionals are interested in reading the medical reports of such renowned deaths? I don’t think their increased level of interest due to being in the profession means they are ghoulish, repellent, perverse, sick or any other similar meaning words that have been used to describe them, they just made a very stupid decision that they thought they’d get away with.

I'm not suggesting it in any way excuses it, but it depends where you work at to whether its 'drilled into you' about accessing records. I'm in social care and I've worked in places where it's barely mentioned at all, it's buried in a user agreement you sign when doing the very dull access training as part of your induction. Others where you get a pop up warning every time you log in reminding you that your access is tracked. It's varied hugely and that's across social care and health for me (I've worked in places where we recorded on the health records)

It might be in some people's nature to rubberneck at tragedies, but to deliberately abuse your position of trust in a professional role for ghoulish purposes is repellent, and anyone who does it should be sacked

Not just purient and ghoulish but really stupid. Every keystroke can be traced. They will have had to do mandatory Information Governance training which will emphasis the handling and accessing of confidential information including of course patient records. I worked in mental health for over a decade and the system we used "knew" what each worker's level of permitted access was and "knew " if a member of staff tried to get into any level of patient records that they had no authority to view. Someone on my team was sacked for looking at their neighbour's records and rightly so.