Former GP surgery secretary fined for reading medical records of 231 patients in two years.
Hannah Pepper was employed at the Fakenham Medical Practice in Norfolk in August 2015 and her duties included lawfully accessing medical records to assist doctors, solicitors and insurance companies.
However, despite being trained in the legal and ethical requirements for patient confidentiality, the surgery discovered in October 2017 that she had been reading a work colleague’s patient file without consent.
A subsequent investigation by the surgery found that Pepper had illegally accessed 231 patient records with no valid reason. These included colleagues and their families, her own relatives, friends and acquaintances and also members of the public.
In a subsequent interview with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) she accepted she had no justifiable reason for accessing the records and suggested that at times she struggled with the monotony of some of her tasks.
Pepper, aged 23, of Ashside, Syderstone, Norfolk, admitted four charges of unlawfully accessing personal data in breach of s55 of the Data Protection Act 1998 when she appeared at Kings Lynn Magistrates’ Court.
She was fined £350 and was also ordered to pay costs of £643.75 and a victim surcharge of £35.
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