NHS England's chief, Jim Mackey, has stated that staff suspected of inappropriately accessing patients' medical records should be immediately suspended and denied access to health service computers. He has urged NHS England's 205 health trusts to adopt a "zero tolerance" approach to such incidents.
Mr Mackey called for a "hardline" stance against anyone found to have viewed patient notes or medical histories without clinical justification. He wrote to all trusts, demanding the routine implementation of a "crackdown" on breaching confidential patient data.
The intervention follows concerns that staff sometimes use their position to view medical records, with reports highlighting incidents involving victims of attacks in Nottingham in 2023 and Southport in 2024. Mr Mackey emphasised that patient records contain highly private information and that abusing this trust will not be tolerated.
An investigation by Sky News and the Health Service Journal found that since 2020, more than 200 NHS staff in England have been dismissed and 2,000 others sanctioned for snooping on patient records. Responses from 140 trusts to freedom of information requests showed 214 staff were dismissed, three suspended, and 540 given a final written warning over the last five years.