I’ve reported my friend for an NHS confidentiality breech

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I have a (now ex) friend who works for the NHS who works as a clerical officer who we’ll call Karen. I’m in the early stages of pregnancy and haven’t told anyone other than my dh. Had my first midwife appointment and since this, I’ve had some congratulations texts from people within my friendship group. When I queried how they knew I was pregnant, they said they heard it from Karen. When I asked Karen about this she said she saw it on my file, and shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. I’m really upset that she’s just looked me up on her hospitals system like this. She works where my appointments are and openly said that she’s done this and has done it to a few of us in the group so she knows what’s going on. It’s my first pregnancy and I’m so anxious and I’m so upset so many people know about it.

At the time I was so angry I instantly filed a complaint to the hospital. Information governance then contacted me to say they’d be conducting an internal audit. This was 3 weeks ago and I’ve not heard anything since. I’m still upset with Karen but I now feel so guilty I’ve done this. I don’t want her to loose her job. Karen knows I’ve done this because I’ve told her and she’s livid and none of our mutual friends are talking to me now.

Is there anyone here who works for the NHS who can explain what happens in these situations? I’m guessing everything is fine because I’ve not heart anything from information governance since but I’m so worried

You’re either a bit dim or your moral compass is so far off, it’s done a runner. 🙄

This isn’t a minor indiscretion on her part but a massive breach of trust and she will have received mandatory training explaining all this when she started the job. She will have been clearly told that accessing records to have a nosey and passing on information to others is a sackable offence. She’s admitted to the OP that she’s looked at other peoples records too.

She’ll have to leave voluntarily or be sacked because even her colleagues won’t want to continue working with her.

She broke the law. however, I would never report a friend before explaining how hurt I was by her accessing my health information, and informing her that I will be reporting her (for past and any future indiscretions) if I heard of similar behaviour happening again.

I couldn't live with myself to cause a good NHS nurse and friend to lose her job.

I don’t work in the nhs but I have worked previously as a nurse in another country and this would be an absolute no no. She would have presumably received training on this (everyone working in hospitals where I live receives extensive training on confidentiality) and should know better. She sounds like she has no common sense whatsoever, what on earth was she thinking ? It really does sound like she is not suitable for working there having done something like this. If she thinks this is acceptable what else could she get up to.

That's not the same as actually reading your medical notes .
Personal information that you probably want to keep quiet. Not just the pregnancy.

Karen knows damn well she’s not allowed to do what she did and could lose her job as a result. She also knows she bought it on herself.

Your mutual friends are morons. Do they think Karen hasn’t looked them up and found stuff out about them too? If I found out a friend of mine did this to another friend my first thought would be “omg that’s a terrible breach of trust” followed up with “omg. What does that nosy
bitch know about me?”

Also, imagine if she had information and she was to use that against someone or try and blackmail them. She’s on shaky ground. I think you need to follow this up.

What OP's friend did was illegal. Medical records contain confidential information that most people don't want other people to know. OP's pregnancy may be a nice thing, but what if she had previous terminations of pregnancy that she wouldn't want people to know about, or had reported domestic violence in a previous relationship? OP's friend isn't just looking up the information, she is passing it on to other people.

As the confidentiality of medical information is such a huge thing in the NHS, OP's friend would know the consequences if her employer found out what she has done. As well as being completely unprofessional, she sounds too stupid to work in that role.

Thing is, OP, is that it's likely that you won't be the only person whose medical records she's accessed. If this is true, then it's absolutely awful, unacceptable, possibly illegal, and she deserves to lose her job.

A nurse who illegally accesses medical files of friends is NOT a "good NHS nurse". If she can't keep confidentiality and exploits the medical records of her friends for her own needs then she's a danger and unfit to be anywhere near patients.

She is not a nurse . And you are being very dramatic saying you couldn't live with yourself for reporting and potentially causing them to be fired.
They should not be in this job if they can not follow very basic rules . Friend or not.
Medical notes are private for a lot of reasons.

I know. I’m just saying I know it’s not nice to have your personal information shared. I’m absolutely not excusing what OPs friend has done. Completely inappropriate and a high breach of trust but I also can’t imagine reporting and having a good friend lose their job, potentially putting them and their family in financial hardship for sharing pregnancy news early. I would potentially end the friendship If I felt very strongly about it but no I probably wouldn’t report it.

I’m not dyslexic. I’m just not the best at spelling and grammar and I know I need to do better

I imagine it's because other friends quite enjoyed Karen quickly checking what their colonoscopy results were for them or following up on where they are in a queue for a physio referral. And now the OP denied them this access.

OP, please don't feel guilty. I work for the NHS and I don't want to be working alongside people like that. I hope you told the IG office about the fact that she also shared your personal information. She could have wiggled out of unauthorised access if part of her job involves any type of filing or appointment bookings as she may argue she came across records as part of that. However, sharing the information about you with others without documented consent is a major breach of IG. I wouldn't like to think that she gets off with a warning and mandatory training for this. Some offences require immediate dismissal.

She’s not a nurse she’s admin staff - easily replaceable.

what your NHS worker friend is a huge no-no.

Even if you'd begged her to access your notes for you she'd be in big trouble.

She won’t need proof as in text messages. There will be an electronic footprint of everyone she’s looked at on the system. She should lose her job OP, well done for reporting her.

What about other proof - eg WhatsApp group chats where they back her up or the messages you referred to in you op where people congratulated you and you asked how they knew?

I might agree with you about giving her benefit of the doubt except her reaction to OP confronting her was to shrug her shoulders like it was no big deal. If she'd apologised profusely and promised to never do anything like it again, I'd say she deserved a second chance. But her attitude suggested she'd do it again and again regardless of OP having a stern word.

They do in most Trusts but only after the investigation is fully completed. There should be a letter from the Chief Exec (granted, the CE won't personally write the letter but it will come on their stationery) informing the OP of the outcome, but not the details, of the investigations and with a formal apology. And probably some information about the appeal process.

"I know. I’m just saying I know it’s not nice to have your personal information shared. I’m absolutely not excusing what OPs friend has done. Completely inappropriate and a high breach of trust but I also can’t imagine reporting and having a good friend lose their job, potentially putting them and their family in financial hardship for sharing pregnancy news early. I would potentially end the friendship If I felt very strongly about it but no I probably wouldn’t report it."

@Motherofdragons24 but it's not just news of the pregnancy is it? Her friend has admitted to checking up on other people that she knows. A person's medical history is a very private document and anyone working in the NHS knows how important privacy and discretion should be. The friend deserves to lose her job if she is found in breach of her employment conditions.

Regular spot checks on you? Absolutely disgusting

Not only did she look but she told people. Absolutely horrible!. Does she any sense? Also the people against you are terrible, how can they agree with what she dud!. You did Absolutely nothing wrong, she had no right!

"What about other proof - eg WhatsApp group chats where they back her up or the messages you referred to in you op where people congratulated you and you asked how they knew?"

@Mnetcurious she really won't need proof, all instances of records access by staff members is tracked in the NHS, the trust should be able to prove she has accessed records by auditing using her employee sign in.

I work in the NHS, I think what will happen to her depends on how she came across the information, if she had a legitimate reason to access it (e.g. she was booking a clinic and saw your name on the list, so put two and two together) then it will be hard to prove she’s broken any rules, as without any evidence, will be your word against her’s. However, if she’s looking at your records for no legitimate reason it will be apparent when they do an audit of your records, which may take some time, as they may want to see if she’s done this to other people. This is a sackable offence and she’s also broken the law, so is taken very very seriously.

I don’t think it would have been necessarily picked up without a complaint (as others have said) because there are a million reasons as to why someone may access the records of someone who isn’t under their area of care e.g. patient calls the wrong dept to enquire about something/someone enters the wrong hospital number/someone clicks on the wrong patient/staff member calls the wrong dept to enquire about patient etc.

So I would urge anyone who believes someone is accessing their records for no good reason to complain about it, don't assume it will be automatically picked up by an audit or computer system.

Regardless, this woman is so out of line and would be very very aware she could be sacked for this, so she deserves to lose her job.

Sorry, but this isn’t about ‘sharing pregnancy news’.

The ‘friend’ looked at records having no idea what she might see, she then shared the information she did find with friends.

What if the OP had had a termination or cancer diagnosis that perhaps she didn’t want to discuss / disclose generally? Although the information found is irrelevant, it’s the breach that is totally wrong.

This is a very serious breach of confidentiality and patients need to be assured that their medical records are private!

The ‘friend’ does not seem to have any grasp on how serious her actions were - which is a very concerning aspect of this scenario .