My “friend” looked at my medical record.. Question for anyone who works in a NHS hospital

[AdviceNeeded3282]

As the title says. A friend of mine who works as an admin in the back office of a hospital has access to patient medical records/information. One night out she openly admitted that she has looked through people’s medical records?!?! (My guess is it’s all computerised). I was gob smacked to say the least. She found it funny/said it was interesting then realised I was angry. She openly admitted she has looked at all of our (close friends) records. My guess she has looked at my DH’s and anyone she is friends with? Anyhow about 2 years ago I went to my GP as I was suffering with depression which I told NO ONE about. This was at my doctors, not my hospital. Are all the systems linked ???? I do not want her knowing my private business like this. Before you say you should report her, I am not going down that road.

This is against all rules of Information Governance.

Why on earth wouldn’t you report her? It’s a horrendous, totally unethical breach of your personal information.

It would be the end of the friendship for me.

I believe it is a dismissible offence
Against IG

Why would you "Not go down that road"? I don't work for NHS but this is clearly a massive invasion of privacy and will no doubt be in contravention of many rules and regs at her job.

Do you not think someone who thinks it's funny to read people's private medical history deserves whatever outcome that behaviour gets them?!

Absolutely you should report her, this is appalling behaviour!! Why on earth wouldn't you?!

What you need to ask yourself is what compels someone to abuse a position of trust like this. I'd be ditching her.

Friend or not it needs to be reported.

Of course the systems are linked.
How would a hospital know someone's history if they weren't?

If you're not going to report this woman for violating peoples privacy then you're as bad as her and may as well I've a look through and good laugh yourself. Despicable and shameful, both of you.

She should not do this. If you are not going to report her then it is pointless, but she should only look at the information she needs to do her job. If she is foolish enough to look up friends’ records she should keep it to herself. If her job is admin then she will have access but it should be restricted to the job she does. I’m surprised she can see such a lot.

No they are not linked but what your friend has done is a despicable. If her employers found out it would be dismissal for her and rightly so.
Every contact with medical records leaves an audit trail and her employer can see how many times she has accessed her friends records.
She would be my ex friend and l would seriously consider reporting her,

I would be absolutely livid. It doesn’t matter what is or isn’t on there she shouldn’t be looking. I would definitely report and her Trust will take it very seriously indeed. I know someone who was dismissed after looking at her grandsons records. She was estranged from her daughter (his mother) and just wanted to know how he was getting on.

Wow massive breech of IG.

They could be linked systems, depends on which system ?EMIS.
Really, really bad she shouldn't be in that job.

That's breaching confidentiality and a sackable offence. She could be charged as well.

I know. I’ve totally backed off from her. It’s torallt out of order what she has done. Why she would openly admit this though is beyond me. She was going on like it was the norm? I’m not that type of person to just go and report her though - how would they proove anything? Anyhow - if someone could please tell me if the systems are linked I would really appreciate it. I cannot bare the thought of people knowing my personal life like this, as you can tell it’s sent my anxiety through the roof. Other friends were like “it is wrong but what have you got to hide that we don’t already know?”. It’s personal.

Sackable offence. Whether the systems are linked depends. Some NHS trusts are fully electronic and all of a patient's notes can be accessed online - in other areas they are not. Where we are for example, there are more than 30 different patient record systems with hospitals using different systems to GP practices. But there could still be GP info in a hospital record - so for example, if a patient has to go into hospital for something and has to disclose any medications they were on or give info on any medical conditions they ever had (Have you had to do this?)

What she has done though is a really horrible thing to do and a total breach of her employment.

Not necessarily linked, but your GP will have letters and reports from hospital appointments.

I would alert everyone you have in common about this.

Definite IG breach, legally.

This is a very serious bit of misconduct and you really should report her. It’s not fair on all her other innocent victims if you knew about it but kept quiet.

Report her anonymously if you’d rather do that, I’m quite sure she’s told other people she looks at records. Her employers may have a whistleblowing system that will let you report her without being identified yourself.

GP and hospital IT systems aren't linked - it's very very unlikely that snooping on your hospital notes would give her any info on consults with your GP about depression.

GP and hospital electronic records are not linked.
Records should only be looked at if you have a clinical reason to do so, and you are not allowed to be opening your own, or your families records.
She will have left an electronic footprint which could be discovered at audit anyway, so if you report her she wouldn’t know it had come from you. Although why would you be friends with someone like that who has no boundaries or respect for friend’s privacy?!

Oh it will be easily proven. Every time you access a record it leaves a digital footprint- if hers is on a record she has no business looking at she is bang to rights

I work for the prison service- I have the capacity to access any offenders records but if I do that without good cause I am in breach of my position and it would be considered gross misconduct.

Im NHS information governance.
You need to report her.
As for the systems it's rare that a hospital Trust has access to GP surgery database. The two systems are different. There are different levels of patient note access depending on your position.
You describe her as back office admin I would think all she can see is when you or your friends have attended that particular hospital along with results. Which is bad enough but reassuring for your particular worry.

In these circumstances I’d definitely report her, that is a massive breach she’s committed, very serious! Why on earth she’d even want to do this is beyond me.