Twenty-four UK doctors in five years censured over medical record breaches

Twenty-four doctors have been disciplined by the UK medical regulator in the last five years after accessing and using information from patients’ treatment records without good reason.

The General Medical Council (GMC) said it had struck off two of the 24 doctors it had sanctioned after finding that they had undertaken “inappropriate use” of medical records.

Another 10 were suspended, 10 were warned about their future conduct, one had a condition imposed on their licence to practise medicine and the other had to undertake not to repeat their behaviour.

The 24 cases were among 194 incidents of doctors allegedly accessing medical records without a clinical justification that prompted a complaint to the regulator between 2017 and 2022.

Privacy campaigners said it was shocking that almost 200 people had made complaints to the GMC accusing doctors of violating patients’ confidentiality in that way.

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Source: The Guardian, 13 June 2023