A mum has spoken of her anger at hospital staff who were caught snooping on her patient records after she was involved in a crash on the M6.
Niki Moreton received a letter from the NHS telling her about the data breach - which came to light two years after the 21-year-old was treated at Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan with back and knee injuries following the motorway collision.
Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust has apologised to Niki and reported the data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
It launched an ‘internal review’ after a patient raised concerns about one of its wards, Stoke on Trent Live reports.
Data protection officer Paul Howard said: “Following the complaint, we became aware of poor practice on one of our wards.
“We launched a full investigation which showed that staff who had legitimate access to our electronic patient record to allow them to care for patients had also been using the system to look at records of people not under their care.
“Our investigation has shown that, in some cases, records were accessed inappropriately on a single occasion for a short period of time. In other cases, records were accessed multiple times or for longer periods of time.
“We set high standards for our staff and all those involved fell short of what our patients and the public are entitled to expect from those who provide care for our patients.”
Speaking about the breach, Niki said: “I’m not happy. I’ve got two young children and I have lost trust in the NHS."
Niki, from Fenton, was travelling on the M6 with her 29-year-old partner, Martin Clowes, when their car overheated and they had to pull over onto the hard shoulder. Their vehicle was then struck from behind.
Martin suffered three broken ribs.
He said: “We have lost trust in the NHS. How can we now know that when we go to hospital that our details will be safe?
"We want something to be done. We are taking them to court."
