NHS England: Stopping unlawful access to records guidance for health and care professionals

Summary

Accessing patient records out of curiosity or for personal reasons is illegal. It causes real harm to patients and could end your career. Everyone working in health and care has a professional and legal responsibility to protect people’s confidential information. This includes accessing patient records only where there is a clear and legitimate reason and doing so in a way that respects patients’ dignity and trust. 

Accessing records for any reason other than work purposes is both unethical and illegal. If you intentionally access people’s health and care records without an appropriate and approved work reason, you may be committing a criminal offence under the Data Protection Act 2018 and Computer Misuse Act 1990. It is also a serious breach of your employment contract and could result in disciplinary action, including dismissal. It could also result in a referral to your professional regulator and could end your career. 

NHS England has published Stopping unlawful access to records guidance for patients and service users.