Eight staff depart SA Health after finding that they inappropriately accessed the medical records of Charlie Stevens

Eight staff – all of whom were facing termination – resigned from SA Health after they were found to have inappropriately accessed the medical records of the 18-year-old son of Grant Stevens.

Eight staff – all of whom were facing termination – resigned from SA Health after they were found to have inappropriately accessed the medical records of Charlie Stevens.

Another 10 who were also involved in the controversy have been hit with sanctions on their employee records.

SA Health has concluded its investigation into allegations staff inappropriately accessed private clinical information about the 18-year-old son of Police Commissioner Grant Stevens.

Charlie suffered an irreversible brain injury and later died after a hit-run at Schoolies celebrations in Victor Harbor last year.

In a statement, the department said 18 employees were investigated for potentially accessing his medical records inappropriately.

“Eight staff members who were found to have inappropriately accessed clinical information resigned before the outcome was finalised,” it said.

“Employees were advised that had they not resigned during the investigation, termination of their employment would have been pursued.”

Charlie Stevens and Grant Stevens. Picture: Supplied

Findings of misconduct were made against another 10 staff, who were subject to sanctions ranging from warnings to reprimands. Sanctions form part of an employee’s permanent record.

There is one staff member who is still under investigation, and the Stevens family has been told of the outcomes.

“Our sincerest apologies go to the family for distress caused,” the department said.

SA Health restated its “zero-tolerance approach” to the inappropriate access of patient’s medical records.

“Protecting patients and their private clinical information is a matter we take extremely seriously,” the statement said.

“We have robust policies and processes in place to ensure that staff are accessing appropriate information and regularly conduct audits to ensure our policies are complied with.

“Staff have and continue to be reminded of the Code of Ethics and in particular their confidentiality and patient privacy obligations.”

Deputy Opposition Leader Josh Teague said such breaches must not be allowed to occur in future.

“Does the Labor Government intend to ensure that the staff who resigned won’t be in a position to do this again?,” he said.

“What were the sanctions applied to the remaining staff? Will they continue to be able to access private health information and was any information passed on to others?”

Health Minister Chris Picton said SA Health undertakes regular audits to ensure staff are appropriately accessing information.

“This is a message to everybody at SA Health to make sure that they do follow the rules ... to make sure that people are only accessing information when they need to,” he said.

“Every time somebody’s record is accessed, there’s a record of that in the system.”

Asked about the 10 staff who were sanctioned but not terminated, he said evidence against them was not as conclusive.

“For example, it might have been somebody who had left their computer open and it was unable to be identified who was accessing that computer,” he said.

SA Health, which employs almost 50,000 people, instituted a zero-tolerance policy for snooping patients’ records after the Cy Walsh scandal when it was revealed 13 clinicians hacked into his medical records without authority after his admission to Flinders Medical Centre.

This followed the stabbing death of his father, then-Crows coach Phil Walsh, while he was having a mental health episode in 2015.

Those 13 were disciplined. It then emerged that at least nine other patients had their records browsed without authority by at least 24 staff.