“Nosy” midwife struck off for accessing patient records

A “STUPIDLY NOSY” midwife who looked up confidential medical records, including those of friends and colleagues, has been banned from the nursing profession.

Vicky Anne Bloxham accessed the files over the 14 years she worked for the University Hospitals of Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.

They included her own records, as well as those of a number of friends, co-workers and acquaintances, and in some cases she passed on information to others.

When her misdemeanours came to light, she admitted she knew what she was doing was wrong, but “just carried on” when she wasn’t caught sooner.

Mrs Bloxham, aged in her 30s, was sacked by the trust last year.

And now she has been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) conduct and competence committee.

The panel heard an investigation was launched after a patient complained to the trust that Mrs Bloxham had passed on information from her medical records to another person.

When initially confronted by her employers and asked if she’d used the computer system to view records she shouldn’t have, the midwife said: “No, never.”

However, she broke down in tears when told it would be possible to find out which records she had accessed.

Days later, she wrote a letter to the trust in which she revealed she had not been “truly honest”, saying she didn’t confess at the earlier meeting because she was “panicked and frightened”.

She admitted viewing records of ward patients she didn’t know and said her actions were “completely inquisitive... pure snoopiness and stupidly nosy.”

The midwife also claimed she had acted in the way she did out of a “fear about health, illness and death”.

But she later revealed she had also looked up records of friends, colleagues, an ex-boyfriend and a former neighbour, between 2002 and May last year.

The panel heard the trust’s computer system flagged up a warning about confidentiality each time someone logged on, which Mrs Bloxham had ignored.

When asked why she had continued, knowing her actions were wrong, she said: “I hadn’t been caught earlier so I just carried on.”

In a letter to the panel, Mrs Bloxham said her future career plans did not include nursing or midwifery, adding: “I remain very ashamed and embarrassed over my actions.

“Unfortunately the events are unchangeable which I have greatly learnt a lesson from. I hope to be able to move forward and put this harrowing time behind me.”

Announcing the decision to strike her off the nursing register, panel chair Yvonne Brown said: “Over a sustained period of some years, Mrs Bloxham repeatedly and deliberately abused her position of trust by accessing confidential patient records without a legitimate clinical reason.

“This was contrary to her training, professional status, her contractual obligations to her employer and her responsibilities under the NMC Code.

“Any breaches of patient confidentiality have the potential to undermine the willingness of patients to reveal information which clinicians need in order to make the correct assessments and provide the necessary care.

“We are satisfied that Mrs Bloxham’s misconduct will have brought the reputation of the profession into disrepute.”