Doctor snooped on medical records of ex’s new partner

AN NHS doctor used her position to snoop on her ex-partner’s new girlfriend, accessing highly sensitive medical information about the woman.

The victim said she was left feeling “violated” and in “fear, shock and horror” after learning that the doctor had used her hospital’s medical records system to access the woman’s GP records, including those pertaining to the health of one of her children and details of a family tragedy.

The Guardian reported that the victim had initially been confused as to how the doctor had accessed information about herself, her sister and her children, which she passed on to her exboyfriend when he had recently started dating the victim last July.

She said: “The doctor said that she had got it from friends, or from people in her choir or parents at my children’s school. That left my sister and I wondering if some of our close friends had betrayed us, as we knew that only a few people knew those details. She had an unhealthy interest in us.”

She asked Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridgeshire, where the doctor worked, to give her a detailed account of all staff who had accessed her records, which revealed that the doctor had accessed her medical records seven times during August and September last year, using Epic – Addenbrooke’s medical records system – to access a different system called GP Connect, allowing her to see the victim’s records.

Addenbrooke’s initially denied that staff could access GP Connect through Epic, but in a meeting with the victim, Dr John Firth, its deputy medical director, acknowledged that her full GP records were available.

Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS trust, which runs Addenbrooke’s, said it had disciplined the consultant but would not specify what action it had taken because of staff confidentiality.