NHS data breaches: Attack victims’ families demand tougher rules for staff

AI Summary

Families whose loved ones’ NHS medical records were accessed without justification are urging the UK government and NHS leaders to strengthen staff-access rules. Their proposals include a mandatory check before records are opened, following several high-profile cases involving victims of attacks and hospital scandals.

Families of the victims of high profile attacks whose loved ones had their medical records illegally accessed by NHS staff have demanded change.In a letter to health secretary Yvette Cooper, NHS England chief executive Jim Mackey, and culture secretary Lisa Nandy, signatories include relatives of the children attacked at a dance class in Southport and the people killed in Nottingham by Valdo Calocane.1Other signatories include victims of the Nottingham maternity scandal23 and relatives of Oliver McGowan, who died after being wrongly given an antipsychotic drug at Southmead Hospital in Bristol. All have had their loved ones’ medical records accessed without need by NHS staff in a series of scandals that have come to light in the past 12 months.In their letter they call for three changes to be made to NHS policy on staff accessing patients’ medical records. The first is a “mandatory tick box to access records,” which the...