NHS staff may have accessed the medical records of a man killed by a tiger at a wildlife park “without legitimate permission”, an ambulance trust has said.
Yorkshire ambulance service NHS trust has launched an investigation into two members of staff at the trust, which responded to emergency calls on Saturday when William Chapman climbed into the tiger enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
There may have been “two instances involving two members of staff accessing or attempting to access incident/medical information without a legitimate reason”, the ambulance service said after being contacted by HSJ, the trade publication for NHS policy.
Background and inquest details
Chapman, 23, was mauled to death by the 200kg male Siberian tiger named Altai at the zoo, after climbing into its enclosure. The park reopened on Friday after being closed since the attack.
An inquest opening on Thursday heard how Chapman had schizophrenia and had experienced bouts of psychosis, but was “highly functioning and independent with no care requirements”.
His family, who did not attend the hearing at Doncaster coroner’s court, expressed concerns about his contact with mental health services before his death. Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS foundation trust has launched an investigation into their contact with him.
Investigation and response
The inquest heard Chapman was a self-employed online trader who was living in Doncaster at the time of his death. An initial postmortem found that he had died from multiple traumatic injuries after his encounter with the endangered mammal.
The coroner’s officer, Caitlin Brookes, said: “He was approached by the tiger and the ensuing physical contact between the tiger and Mr Chapman led to him sustaining multiple traumatic injuries which rapidly led to his death.”
Park staff secured the tiger and Yorkshire ambulance service paramedics attended but confirmed Chapman’s death at the scene. The senior coroner, Nicola Mundy, said her office was awaiting a more substantial report on the extent of Chapman’s injuries ahead of a full inquest on 18 March.
The potential breach of Chapman’s medical records happened after the attack and has since been reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
The trust said it had “identified an information governance concern in relation to this tragic incident at Yorkshire Wildlife Park and William’s family has been informed of our ongoing investigation into this.
“We believe there may have been two instances involving two members of staff accessing or attempting to access incident/medical information following this incident without a legitimate reason to do so.
“We take the confidentiality and security of patient information extremely seriously and have robust systems in place to protect information, and this concern has been identified as a result of our proactive audits.”
Ahead of reopening on Friday, Yorkshire Wildlife Park said safety was the “highest priority”, and thanked members of the public who had sent “messages of support and love for our team at this time”. Wildlife and zoo experts previously told the Guardian it was unlikely the wildlife park could have done anything to prevent the death.
