If you work in the nhs would you get in trouble for this?

[Bewilderedbotheredbemused]

Looking at a patient who isn’t your patient’s notes.

so say a nurse on ward a looked a patient x’s (someone the nurse knew) notes who was on ward b. If the nurse was found out, would they get into trouble?

would they be able to tell if a nurse / doc had done something like this after the fact?

(for clarity I have not done something like this, someone I know is making some allegations about another person I also know)

NHS worker here: absolutely that’s not allowed and is covered in mandatory information governance training. It’s a sackable offence.

Yes. You would be asked why you 'broke glass' to look at a patients details whose care you weren't directly involved in. I can't say 100% what would happen next but it would definitely be flagged

Pretty sure I remember a nurse in the news who was in trouble for doing this.

It’s a sackable offence

Depends on the reason.

It will be flagged up, ut disciplinary proceedings would e worse if he patei t was someone famous, family member or known to the worker.

You leave an electronic footprint whenever you access a patients notes, so yes it can be traced.

Also, if it’s electronic notes, then yes it’s all traceable

Yup this is a massive problem and if it is done on a computer system is going to be fully auditable by the necessary folks. Its a breach of confidentiality and will be breaking trust policy. If you are not involved in the direct care of a patient there is NO justifiable reason for looking at their private medical records. They can be reported to the information governance dept at their trust and if found to be true then serious disciplinary action can be taken.

They would’ve been known to the worker but would’ve been asked to help the family of the patient out and explain what was going on and try and locate the patient (during covid)

say if an allegation was made that a nurse/ doc was doing this day 2 years after the fact, could it be verified?

I’d be sacked.

Ah cross posted… yikes

We have literally received a communication about this issue this week from the IG team. Apparently the person involved had accessed an ex's ir partners records. They were fined for it not sacked though. I don't know what they can see regarding what people have accessed but I am assuming they can.

Anyone who works with patients should know this isn't OK TBH. There aren't really any excuses.

So a breach of patient confidentiality? that’s bad.

I mean possibly if they could argue that the patient was elderly and confused and had a good relationship with their family and wouldn’t have minded the family knowing where they were but couldn’t make contact in the height of the pandemic confusion then that might be mitigating circumstances. The

And yes, it could still be tracked two years later……the names of who has looked at records will be there on the system.

who has reported it?

On the systems that we use we have training prior to getting access and every single thing that is done on them is logged. There has to be a legitimate reason for you to be accessing information. So if someone accused me of looking up their records they would be able to see everything I have accessed. If I had no legitimate reason to be in their record (ie patient I'm looking after) I could be dismissed for gross misconduct and struck off by the NMC. I guess I could physically look at paper notes but realistically that's less likely as someone would ask me why I was there.

NHS HR employee here. And yes absolutely you’d be in a lot of bother. And it is also against the NMC code of conduct.
I would be asking for a fact finding exercise to establish what happened and why and take it from there.

For instance I was always taught if a family member rings up the ward and asks how x is doing or even if x is on the ward then I can’t even confirm they’re a patient on the ward. Let alone tell a random person on the phone how the patient is.

I don’t want to say too much just in case but it would’ve been a case of the family asked the healthcare worker to help give a ‘state of the nation’ of their relative, help locate them etc .

there has since been a huge falling out (in no way related to this) and the allegations (that are being drafted by way of a formal complaint on behalf of the patient, now deceased’s relative) are petty revenge not a legit grievance

Sackable offence unless you can give a strongly justified reason to do so.
The only reason I can access patients that don't belong in our caseload's data is to open a referral for them in our team.
And yes, electronic footprint is a real thing.

Would this have been with the patient ts permission, or would the patient have minded.

Again if there were mitigating circumstances then may be ok, but if patient didnt want family to know for a specific reason then in big trouble.

As it’s vengeance now I think the family of the patient or the family member making the complaint would lie and say that they were not ok with the looking on records nor did they ask, which is a lie

My estranged mil looked at my medical records, I had them audited because I had a feeling she’d been snooping! She got away with it scott free! She’d also been looking at other people’s medical records and again nothing was done about it! Absolutely shocking! Hence she’s now estranged!!

But that's rare. I think other NHS workers in this thread can confirm that it's a sackable offence and one of the first things you learn in your induction

On the audit trail, every user has a code and when you look up the code it tells you their name, job role and department. You can see exactly who has looked at which records and when.

I am a nurse and In a previous role I sometimes had to open and read parts of patients’ case notes who weren’t on our caseload. I would ALWAYS get an email from IG asking me to explain exactly why I had looked at what I had looked at, they knew exactly what I had opened. In that role it was always justifiable but I would not dare do similar now as it is made very clear to us that it is a sackable offence.

im quite worried for the healthcare worker too

person z as we’ll now refer to them is going to claim that they were stealing drugs too (paracetamol). Think they are really trying to destroy the healthcare worker