Health secretary Yvette Cooper has said NHS staff who inappropriately accessed the medical records of Nottingham attack victims should be suspended while investigations take place, and sacked if breaches are confirmed. Her comments follow revelations that staff at two NHS trusts may have illegitimately accessed patient data.
Cooper demands action over data breaches
Speaking to the BBC, Cooper said she expects action to be taken against staff who breached NHS data and privacy standards. She stressed that NHS staff must show patients proper respect, adding that the health service has clear standards in place to protect data and privacy.
“Let me be absolutely clear,” she said. “The NHS has robust data protection and privacy standards.”
Speaking to Sky News, Cooper said she has spoken to the NHS chief executive and they have agreed “that if there are cases here of people inappropriately accessing medical records, then they should be suspended while the investigation takes place and we need a much swifter line on this because these are basic standards, and everybody across the NHS knows that these are the basic standards”.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service investigation
Asked if people should be sacked, she added: “If there are breaches then people actually need to be sacked.”
Her comments come after Yorkshire Ambulance Service Trust said staff may have illegitimately accessed William Chapman's medical records. Chapman died of “multiple traumatic injuries and animal interaction” after he entered the enclosure of Amur tiger Altai at Yorkshire Wildlife Park earlier this month.
A trust spokesperson said there may have been two separate incidents involving two members of staff who accessed, or attempted to access, medical information “without a legitimate reason to do so” following the incident. The trust said it has “commenced an investigation to establish the full circumstances surrounding these potential breaches and the actions of these individuals”, adding that it had also reported the incident to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
Nottingham University Hospitals dismissals
On Friday, Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) said 15 staff, including doctors and nurses, had been sacked after accessing medical records belonging to the victims of the 2023 Nottingham attack.
Valdo Calocane killed two 19-year-old students, Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, and Ian Coates, a 65-year-old caretaker, and attempted to kill three other people in the city in June 2023.
During its investigation the trust has so far dismissed 15 staff, issued 15 final written warnings and two first written warnings. The victims’ families were told about the latest update this week.
Dr Manjeet Shehmar, NUH medical director, previously said there was “simply no excuse for accessing the records of a patient without a legitimate reason”. He added: “I'd like to ask Yvette Cooper the question, when is this going to stop and what is she doing exactly to make this stop and decrease the suffering of people who are victims of crime and of major incidents, when is this going to stop?
“I am appalled. It's time to get a handle on these failures. Clearly, the way that the highest confidential data, which is medical data, is being looked at by voyeuristic people in the NHS is disgraceful.”
In May, the NUH said it had sacked 11 staff members who illegally accessed the medical records of the victims. Earlier this year the NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group (UHLG), which runs Aintree Hospital in Liverpool, admitted that nearly 50 staff members looked inappropriately at the medical records of victims of the Southport knife attack.
