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 haven't thought it through. This could be a huge safeguarding risk depending on whose records an unscrupulous person looks at and with whom they gossip.
Medical records could potentially contain information about rape, CSA, incest, anything.

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If she has potentially done this with other friends, could you pass on the names of mutual female friends who have had babies, to see if there is evidence that she has looked up their records too?

And this just out

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/mar/06/nhs-staff-may-have-illegally-accessed-records-of-nottingham-attack-victims

She should lose (not loose) her job. If she can’t adhere to a basic confidentiality requirement, and isn’t even ashamed of what she did, she is in the wrong job.

I agree. These friends haven’t realised she’s probably looked up their notes as well. You ‘friend’s has committed two offences - 1( looking up notes, and 2) blagging them.

Even if she had come across the news by accident, she still shouldn’t have disclosed it.

Yes it is. Many dyslexic people have trouble with homophones words such as to,too and two, loose and lose, effect and affect are also problematic. A large proportion of us spell phonetically and rely on spellchecker which often don't pick up on these words due to them being spelled correctly, as they are just not for the word we wanted

She is NOT “a good NHS nurse” if she’s been accessing her friends’ medical records FFS!

My friend did this but not to me. She's now an ex friend because it's a dreadful thing to do.

She will probably get a final written warning - I think she should have been sacked.

I once as a professional accidentally accessed a medical record I had no business seeing - the names were the same and I clicked on the one below the one I wanted on the list. On our system I had to tick a box saying why I accessed it - I put ‘in error’ and then accessed the correct patient’s notes.

I was contacted the same day asking why I had gone on those records. I explained my mistake, and they checked and could see I had immediately gone on to someone else of the same name, that the names were next to each other on the list - and even that I had only been in the wrong records for a matter of seconds.

It really is taken seriously, but I am truly appalled that she thinks she is ok because she is ‘checking on friends’ in some kind of imaginary caring way.

OP you did the right thing.
She deserves to be fired, nor reprimanded.

God knows whom else she has checked out.
Disgraceful.

I would agree with above poster, unless she was directly managing the clinic or waiting list you were on she has no right to access and tbh even if she was she should not have clicked past name contact details etc. Or if treating declared she knew you to her manager. Obviously the clinic may have given away your pregnancy. As NHS worker we have it drummed into us about GDPR and accessing notes its taken incredibly seriously for good reason. I have a patient with the same name as my husband and once accidentally brought up his details, clicked off it immediately but let our governance team know. They could see i had literally just seen his name address etc, but did write and let him know . He thought it was hilarious as it was nothing I didn't already know! I now triple check every time I go to that patient. I would think if she has.no good reasons and they can find a trali of her accessing other records as well, which is easily done she will loose her job quite rightly, there is no excuse

I can't believe that some people are defending her actions and not seeing how serious this is. As for her possibly losing her job and possibly leaving her family in financial hardship, she should have thought about that before accessing confidential information. It is down to her to let her family know why she has lost her job. She has proved herself to be untrustworthy in both her professional and personal life.

This is crazy!!

What if you had decided not to continue with the pregnancy for some reason and all your friends were congratulating you!!

The one who accessed your file is so totally in the wrong and I'm amazed your other friends are taking her side, are they honestly ok with this woman nosing through their medical records just because she's bored at lunchtime?? Shocking!!

You definitely need new friends!!

Can you call up the information governance for a follow up? They may update you.

We have a Healthboard wide system that holds letters and appointments. So when I contract confidentiality with patients I have to let them know that any healthcare professional will be able to access the letters but I can process them more confidentially if they wish (barring safeguarding measures). So of if I needed to I could access any letter from any healthcare professional in our Healthboard that has processed the letter through the standard procedure and this includes GPs. I could also see all the appointments that person has had or has booked in. I never have because I haven’t needed to.

Never, ever apologise to people who have such appalling manners they have corrected your spelling.

Pedantry should be a private vice!

Morning, everyone. We're going to close this thread to new posts now. There are a few things here that are ringing alarm bells with us and leading us to think all might not be entirely as described.