NHS staff accessing medical records inappropriately in high profile or tragic news stories.

[HavfrueDenizKisi]

What the hell is wrong with people who work for the NHS and still somehow think it’s ok to voyeuristically access the medical records of patients who have been in the news?

Just read this article about 40 members of staff being investigated over the inappropriate viewing of this poor boy’s medical records. Read a similar article a few weeks back about the medical records of the victims of the Nottingham attack being accessed. Something like 11 people were sacked and 12 given final warnings about that (somehow suggesting it wasn’t their first time doing so).

Surely it is pretty fucking clear when you start working for the NHS that this is Absolutely Not Allowed. Plus it must be clear that there is a digital trail left behind of anyone accessing records. Honestly the mind boggles.

Link to article on BBC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg5kvpdd15o

I don’t work for the NHS but work in a similar service in an admin role. I was accused of accessing a service users file and immediately suspended. Our system is the same in that you can see exactly who accessed files and when, which is how my name was cleared. It was apparent I had not accessed the file after the time my department had need to access it. I would never risk it but I know people who do. Our team have a very high profile case currently that I wouldn’t be surprised if people had been tempted to have a look through.

Really?
Fuck me they must be as thick as pigshit then.

You work for the NHS and you did not know that it was against the rules, but now you do would do it again

Do you not read what you sign up for, do you not read instructions on the screen, do you not take any notice during training.

And you should never be using another persons account, if you add notes on someone's elses account (as you are unable to get onto your account for some reason) this has to be clearly documented

You know the rules now or can't get away with being innocent so if you still continue you will loose your job and rightly so

I certainly hope so

This is the case for the NHS too. You can only access records that are specific for the population you work with. A GP receptionist can only access records for those patients registered at that practice. There are different levels of access but generally it is very specific and monitored.

you're all so pious 😂 I would 💯 want to do this if I had this sort of job and the only thing that would stop me would be fear of being caught. Im nosy as hell and love knowing about secret things.

oh look another flying piggy. There is NO WAY you did not know this. The login would have been flagged against your colleague's ID and they would have had to explain why they has accessed your record and then you would have been in the khazi for misusing a colleague's login.

please grow up.

Those of you who audit: how do you establish whether someone was being nosey or just mistyped the address or number or similar and landed on the wrong person?

Only a few weeks ago a number of staff were dismissed for doing the very same thing for the medical records of the young students murdered in Nottingham.

No excuses. They should be dismissed with immediate effect.

Being nosy isn’t related to age

Instant sacking and a possible criminal conviction would be a good start and deterrent.

I work for a government dept (not the NHS) and we’re told when we first start that anyone accessing records that aren’t necessary for the work they’re currently doing is an instant termination.

Is anyone saying they dont understand why people may want to know?
Yes people want to know but if they dont need to know and they look anyway, they should lose their job.
Its hardly pious to believe in the importance of patient confidentiality and to think people should control themselves.

It records time record was accessed so, if a mistake, you’d expect that to be brief. Also the protocol is to check three points of identification - usually name date of birth and NHS number to minimise accessing the wrong patient .

I don't get why on earth people do this. It's so clearly going to cost them their jobs.

But I also don't get why the records can't be a bit more locked down in high profile cases

most people, however, do (thankfully) grow out of such childish behaviour

Back in the Dark Ages of the late 90s/early 2000s, being trained on systems to look up records and reports didn't have practice entries and at several hospitals, I was told 'just use a member of your family'.

Obviously things have changed hugely since those days and anybody with a braincell would know that it's been tracked for many years. Thick people who think they won't be found out exist everywhere.

I now assume this happens all the time..

Keystrokes,

“Innocently I didn’t know it was against the rules.”

Yes, because this has proved to be a very convincing defence in many thousands of criminal and civil cases. Maybe “ I must have suffered a momentary mental blackout which caused me to act out of character.” is a far more convincing argument , though sadly equally unlikely to be believed.

And you should never be using another persons account

Do you work in a clinical role in the NHS? Do you know how crappy the systems we have to use are? If I had to log in every time I walked up to a PC I would never get the work done because it takes so long. We all leave the PCs logged or work would be impossible.

There is a difference between theory & practise.

Let’s say something happens to you that makes the news, do you think I should allow my natural nosiness to override my professionalism and go and have a good old look at all your details? What you are labelling pious I am calling my professional duty - but you do you

Yet, my defence was accepted so the only sanction was a verbal warning. I left that Trust a few months later & that verbal warning didn't follow me. I still feel no guilt as it's my data & must be released under a SAR in any case. It's totally different from accessing clinical data to which you have no right.

They don’t. They just don’t talk to you about it.

Because they are hospital patients and people need to access their records to give them the care they need. I was involved, many years ago, in local planning for the structure of electronic patient records and one of the things that was planned for then was tier and speciality access. So I might be treating someone who had eg a hip replacement but might not need to see their mental health record, or might need to see it but not be able to add to it. The issue is that while I could be excluded from seeing records of people who were not in my caseload, eg i'd never or vanishingly rarely need to see the notes of anyone in maternity, and maternity staff would never need to see geriatric records, many people who work in the NHS might need to access the records of everyone in eg the hospital for keeping track of where they were and for all the back office admin involved in eg finance. As to why they do it? Stupidity? Expecting to sell the info for a big payout? both?