{"id":403723,"date":"2026-04-21T17:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/403723\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T17:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T17:10:08","slug":"doctor-suspended-over-unauthorised-access-to-47-patient-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/403723\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctor suspended over unauthorised access to 47 patient records"},"content":{"rendered":"

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21st April 2026 \u2013 (Hong Kong) A specialist trainee seconded from the Hospital Authority to Hong Kong\u2019s Department of Health has been suspended after allegedly accessing the medical records of 47 patients without authorisation during the course of clinical research.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health and the Hospital Authority confirmed on 21st April that the doctor\u2019s specialist training has been halted with immediate effect. The case has been referred to law enforcement agencies, and notifications have been made to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data, the eHealth Commissioner and the Hospital Authority, which employs the doctor. Affected patients are also being informed.<\/p>\n

While describing the matter as an isolated incident linked to research activities, the Hospital Authority said the conduct was procedurally inappropriate. It pledged to handle the case seriously, strengthen staff training on the proper use of patient information in clinical research, and fully cooperate with any investigation.<\/p>\n

The doctor has been assigned since 2023 to a Social Hygiene Service clinic under the Department of Health, where he underwent regular specialist training, participated in clinical duties and provided consultations to patients.<\/p>\n

The Department of Health began investigating after receiving an enquiry from a member of the public regarding access to their electronic health record. The inquiry revealed that in March this year the trainee doctor had accessed, without authorisation, patient records through the clinic\u2019s Clinical Information Management System and the territory\u2011wide eHealth platform. The records concerned patients who were not under his direct care.<\/p>\n

Specialist trainees are required by their respective colleges to participate in research projects as part of their training. The doctor concerned was conducting a clinical study that had received approval from the Hospital Authority\u2019s Research Ethics Committee. However, that approval covered only records held by public hospitals and did not extend to patient records maintained by the Department of Health. The doctor did not obtain separate authorisation from the department before accessing the relevant data.<\/p>\n

Under internal guidelines issued by the Department of Health, medical staff must protect patient privacy and comply with relevant legislation when accessing medical records. Access to data within the eHealth system is governed by the Electronic Health System Ordinance and associated codes of practice. Healthcare professionals may only view records with patient consent and in accordance with the principles of \u201cneed to know\u201d and \u201cpatient under care\u201d. All access to electronic health records is logged at system level to enable auditing and prevent misuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"21st April 2026 \u2013 (Hong Kong) A specialist trainee seconded from the Hospital Authority to Hong Kong\u2019s Department…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-403723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}