Two NHS staff are disciplined every day for mishandling files and snooping on patient records

An investigation has found that more than two NHS workers are sanctioned each day for mishandling patient records. Over a period of two years, staff were disciplined 652 times for breaching patient confidentiality, and a number of inappropriate cases involved employees looking up the medical records of friends, family, colleagues and even celebrities. The vast majority (86%) of the snooping staff were not doctors or dentists but other healthcare staff. Leeds Teaching Hospitals had the highest number of ill-considered incidents, with 28 staff disciplined.