\n The issue came back into the national spotlight last month after reports around 40 hospital workers in Cambridge looked at details relating to a three-year-old boy who was hurt in a crocodile pit at a zoo.\n<\/p>\n
\n Cambridge University Hospitals is carrying out an investigation into whether there was a legitimate reason for accessing the information and has referred itself to the Information Commissioner\u2019s Office (ICO).\n<\/p>\n
\n University Hospital Southampton (UHS) chief executive David French said such behaviour by staff can undermine patient trust.\n<\/p>\n
\n Speaking at a UHS board meeting on Thursday, July 9, Mr French said: \u201cWe\u2019re wanting digitised systems, we\u2019re wanting national patient records so you can go to any hospital and they can see your records, but this sort of thing is undermining the public\u2019s confidence in the NHS\u2019s ability to keep that very confidential data safe.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Last month, the ICO chief executive warned healthcare organisations to get on top of a \u201cworrying trend\u201d of staff accessing patient records without a legitimate reason.\n<\/p>\n
\n There have been reports of staff being sanctioned for looking up the information of victims involved in high-profile incidents across the country, such as the Nottingham attacks in 2023 and the Southport stabbings in 2024.\n<\/p>\n
\n NHS England has also issued a directive to trusts on the issue.\n<\/p>\n
\n A report by Mr French to the board said UHS had recorded and reported a number of incidents relating of inappropriate access by its staff.\n<\/p>\n
\n In some cases, this had led to the staff member being dismissed.\n<\/p>\n
\n Accessing a patient medical record without a legitimate reason is a criminal offence.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr French said: \u201cWe record every key stroke and there are digital fingerprints over our systems, so we do look when we\u2019ve had a VIP or a person of fame has been in the hospital, we do just run a check.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn fact, we have over the fairly recent years taken disciplinary action.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are on it, but I think it\u2019s a timely reminder from NHS England that it\u2019s not right, it\u2019s not appropriate and it undermines the public trust in us.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Non-executive director Alison Tattersall said UHS had to take a zero-tolerance approach and get the message out to staff.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr French added: \u201cThe organisation knows that you\u2019re not supposed to do this\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt is curiosity overwhelming people.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think the harsh tone from the centre is probably right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The issue came back into the national spotlight last month after reports around 40 hospital workers in Cambridge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-689081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}