Doctor shared patient details on Facebook

A SEXUAL health doctor who accessed a man’s information without permission then shared it on Facebook has been rapped by a health watchdog.

Dr Linda Morris was working at a sexual health clinic with NHS Fife when she requested a man’s files be transferred to her from NHS Grampian.

The transfer, in July 2016, was done without a clinical reason and Morris also failed to note she had viewed the files.

In June 2020, Morris made an ‘inapproin priate’ post on the patient’s Facebook profile which revealed confidential information taken from his medical records.

She was hauled before the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) which has suspended her for two months after ruling her fitness to practise was ‘impaired’.

Morris admitted to breaking ‘the professional value of trust’. She added: ‘It was a very particular set of circumstances with Mr A, but I will never again let my emotions cloud my professional judgment.’

The hearing ruled: ‘The tribunal determined that Dr Morris was only able to act this way because of her position of trust as a doctor.

‘Her conduct was aggravated by her position as a doctor specialising in sexual and reproductive health, which is a particularly sensitive area of medicine, a factor she would have been well aware of.

‘The tribunal were of the view that Dr Morris had acted with a lack of integrity.’

It concluded: ‘The tribunal gave weight to all the mitigating factors it has identified in concluding that, in all the circumstances of this case, a period of two months is the appropriate and proportionate length of suspension.’

The hearing was told the man raised a complaint that Morris had accessed his medical records without a clinical reason and posted information on social media which she had learned from his records.

The report noted the man was not a patient of Morris and added: ‘Keeping information confidential is a fundamental part of the duty of a medical practitioner, and Dr Morris had failed in that duty.’

It said that accessing a person’s medical records for her own ends, when she had no clinical reason to do so ‘would be regarded as deplorable by fellow doctors’.

The panel also ruled Morris had displayed a lack of integrity by accessing the man’s files and then publishing details.

‘Broke professional value of trust’