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

And you are doing right by the other women whose details she’s shared.

It is not worse. What she has done is totally unacceptable, and is a sackable offence. There is no defence for this... not at all.

Do not feel guilty, she's getting what she deserves.

When I was at secondary school, the mum of a boy in our year was a practice nurse. She once told her son that a friend of mine had been on that day. Of course, from that, her sixteen year old son extrapolated correctly that she was going on the pill and told everyone at school. I would never have gone near the nurse after that (thankfully never had to) but with hindsight she should absolutely have complained.

I cant believe your mutual friends are siding with her, what if she looked up some really personal info about them? I just dont understand what she was thinking by telling all your friends. How strange, and what you have done is definitely not worse!

You were absolutely right to report it. Imagine if she'd done similar to another person regarding more private information (for example abuse, or an STD or mental health issues)

Or even with another pregnancy, what if she did that to a friend who was considering termination and the friend then felt they couldn't do it because of everyone finding out. The consequences of sharing medical information are so serious, which is why it's gross misconduct. Yes you may have cost her her job (hopefully), however she's not fit to be in that job and you may have avoided someone else experiencing a horrible situation.

Do you know how long the audits take? Only I’ve not heard anything back from information governance other than them telling me 3 weeks ago that they’d be doing the audit

It is only her actions that have caused her job to be at risk. You should not feel guilty or be blamed for the consequences of her actions.

Even if you hadn't reported it eventually someone else would or internal audits would have noticed.

I have no sympathy for her that's a massive breach of trust both in a professional capacity as an employee and privy to sensitive information, but also in a personal capacity as a friend she's massively overstepped and that's a very odd and controlling thing to do.

I don't think she's any friend of yours. Not only has she snooped on you for her own means, she's shared really private information about you to other people and taken away your ability to share your news with people you care about yourself and surprise them with it. All incredibly selfish. And if your friends can't see how out of line she is and aren't speaking to you then I'd seriously question their boundaries. Time for new friends op. I'd be sending a group message to everyone individually expressly calling out their behaviour.

As we have established in a thread recently, each Trust is slightly different.

Where I work, Karen would be called into a private room with her line manager and an HR officer. The HR officer would be there was a witness. Karen would be suspended immediately on full pay pending an investigation. She would be escorted to her car. The investigation should be conducted within 21 working days. The investigation would over run by about 3 weeks and by the end of April Karen would be invited to a disciplinary panel. During this it would become very obvious that she would be about to be sacked by a dismissing officer (usually a head of division or chief of service) for gross misconduct. She would be escorted off the premises and her access to site revoked.

As an aside, If I were Karen’s union rep I’d immediately demand a break in proceedings once I realised the above, and then hand over the letter if resignation I’d have insisted she write. Then she can honestly say ‘no’ when asked if she had ever been dismissed from a role for misconduct.

your friend did a terrible thing.

You have done exactly the right thing, I volunteer with the NHS and even as a volunteer our mandatory training (which is the same online courses that staff complete) is very clear on confidentiality and that information is only to be accessed if necessary for you to carry out your work.

She will lose her job, but she is not worthy of the trust that has been placed in her and is unfit to continue in any role handling other people’s private medical information. Your other friends should be ashamed of themselves, it is not you that has done anything wrong.

You did the right thing. You have stopped her messing with other people’s confidential
information. I salute you.

They may not tell you much. Ironically, due to confidentiality issues.

NHS worker here.

You absolutely did the right thing here. People have to trust that their information is confidential or there is a risk of people not seeking help. We all need to be able to be 100% honest with our healthcare professionals and know that the information won’t go further.

Karen needs to learn. She will have been to mandatory training that will have absolutely covered this. Awful behaviour.

LOSE! It's LOSE! Not loose.

I’ve been sitting on my hands trying not to correct the OP 🫣. But yea, it is very annoying. They are totally different words!

Your friends are horrible! I can’t believe they are taking her side on this.
Don’t feel guilty, if she’s loses her job then it’s her own fault. She shouldn’t be looking anyone’s medical records if it’s not necessary, to then go and share private medical information with others is disgraceful too.

In my area of the NHS, Karen would be taken without warning and shot to a meeting with her line manager and someone from HR. She’d have no notice of this.

They’d put the allegation to her, and she’d probably deny it. She’d be suspended on full pay and told not to discuss any aspect of the issue with colleagues.

A letter would follow in the post advising her of what was happening and recommending she has a union rep with her.

While she was waiting on her disciplinary hearing, the IT people would scrutinise her digital footprint at work - whose records she’d been in, if there was a legit reason etc.

Then when the meeting came, they’d put the evidence to her and take it from there.

She’ll lose her job as this is just about the worst breach of its nature. She’s been in a position of trust and her actions have caused distress - both aggregator factors.

She’s done for.

Not only has she accessed your records she has also passed that information on to others. She should lose her job.

So what?

It's quite clear what the OP is saying no matter how she spells it.

OP you may not want Karen to lose her job but she really deserves to.

Did they say they would come back to you? I wouldn’t have thought they would- your bit is done, surely, i’m not sure you’d be privy to the outcome of their investigations as her employer.

She deserves to lose her job btw. It is made SO clear in this sort of work that you must not misuse access like that.

But she deserves to lose her job! It’s gross misconduct and possibly illegal. If she does lose her job it’s her fault not yours.

I wouldn’t feel guilty if she’s done that to you she deserves it and you have just stopped her doing that to every single person she knows. It’s unacceptable.

The most surprising thing here is that your friends have fallen out with YOU!

Gross misconduct and a huge breach of privacy. Don’t feel bad, it was her actions, not yours, that landed her in trouble.

She should be sacked. I worked in a bank. We had the same we could not look at family or neighbours accounts just because. We had to have a legitimate reason and it’s sackable offence

Its the same in the nhs unless you have an actual requirement you can’t look at records and even if you did have a requirement you can’t discuss that information with third parties and she has done both.

Do not feel sorry for her as an adult she knows any actions she takes have consequences and she chose to both look and tell people about your health record's

As to your friends. ask them how they would feel if they or a family member were diagnosed with Cancer/STD or whatever and someone told all their friends
If they can’t see that they are not friends