NHS secretary fined for accessing Worcestershire medical records

Loretta Alborghetti accessed a total of 156 patient records

A former NHS secretary has been fined for illegally accessing the medical records of more than 150 patients.

Loretta Alborghetti, 51, worked as a medical secretary at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust when she viewed the records without consent.

She pleaded guilty at Worcester Magistrates' Court on Wednesday to unlawfully obtaining personal data in breach of the Data Protection Act.

The NHS trust said incidents such as these were "extremely unusual".

Stephen Collman, managing director at the trust, said: "Protecting patient and staff confidentiality and privacy is a matter of the utmost importance to us, we take any breaches of confidentiality extremely seriously.

"Where any member of staff is found to be in breach of our clearly communicated guidelines, we will not hesitate to take the appropriate disciplinary action and we will also co-operate fully when any further action, including prosecution is needed."

Alborghetti, of Redditch, was ordered to pay a total of £648.

An investigation by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) found she had accessed an individual patient's records 33 times between March and June 2019.

'Curiosity no excuse'

It was also discovered she had accessed a total of 156 patient records without consent or a business need, viewing them more than 1,800 times in the same period.

This had also included the records of family members and individuals with postcodes local to where she lived at the time, the ICO noted.

Alborghetti, who was an employee within the ophthalmology department, was required to access personal information of the department's patients as part of her role.

But the investigation by the ICO found individuals whose records she had accessed had no medical conditions relating to the work of the department.

Andy Curry, head of investigations, said "curiosity" was no excuse for breaching data protection laws.

"People should never have to think twice about whether their sensitive data, such as their medical records, is secure and in safe hands," he said.

"We want to remind those in positions of trust that just because your job may grant you access to other people's personal information, that doesn't mean you have the legal right to look at it for your own purposes."