SA Health staff sacked, disciplined as 21 caught spying on patient records

SA Health is yet to confirm whether patients whose medical records were looked at by at least 21 unauthorised clinicians - two of whom have been sacked - have been told of the gross privacy breach.

• Inquiry demand after medics spied on Cy Walsh records

SA Health is yet to confirm whether patients whose medical records were looked at by unauthorised clinicians have been told of the gross privacy breach.

Officials are investigating whether all patients had been advised of the privacy intrusion but are yet to respond to a request yesterday by Advertiser.com.au confirming whether all patients had been told when the breach was discovered.

So far it appears at least nine patients have had their records spied on by 21 clinicians in the past 12 months.

Of these, 13 clinicians snooped on Cy Walsh’s medical records after he was taken to Flinders Medical Centre following the stabbing death of his father, Crows coach Phil Walsh, at the family home in July last year. All 13 have since been disciplined.

In other cases, two staff were sacked and a further six disciplined over the unauthorised access of other patient records.

Officials are not revealing whether the breaches were uncovered by a small scale sample audit or a blanket audit of all records.

Opposition Leader Steven Marshall says this leaves open the possibility there may have been many more breaches not yet detected and has called for a judicial inquiry.

Health Minister Jack Snelling has rejected the demand and says any breaches will be detected, but declined to detail how the system is policed.

Radiologist’s records altered

Mr Snelling yesterday told Parliament all those caught in the past 12 months were clinicians.

However, a case last year which prompted an internal inquiry headed by Chief Medical Officer Professor Paddy Phillips involved management tampering with a patient’s records at Lyell McEwin Hospital.

It only came to light when a radiologist found his records had been changed.

In June Dr Paul Newbold found his notes on a patient’s medical records critical of a senior bureaucrat and of the hospital’s software had been erased without his knowledge, in a situation he described as ‘very dangerous and very sinister.’

The inquiry found four middle management were involved in the tampering.

Twenty-one SA Health staff spied on records

TWENTY-ONE SA Health staff inappropriately accessed patient records in the past year, eight more than those involved in the Cy Walsh case — and there are no guarantees there are not more cases yet to be uncovered.

Two SA Health staff have been sacked and six disciplined for hacking into patient records as the scandal spreads, Health Minister Jack Snelling told Parliament yesterday.

He indicated the eight cases were all separate incidents.

A further 13 were caught snooping into Cy Walsh’s records after the murder of his father, Crows coach Phil Walsh, at the family home last year.

Walsh was taken to Flinders Medical Centre and medical tests, including toxicology reports on his hair, are crucial to the trial.

The 13 clinicians — from across the SA Health system — received formal warnings and SA Health chief executive David Swan said further action could be taken if they passed information on to other people.

Inquiry rejected

Mr Snelling revealed the additional cases in State Parliament where he rejected the Opposition’s call for a judicial inquiry into the integrity of patient records.

He told Parliament the audit of who had accessed patient records in the past 12 months without clearance had found other instances of breaches of patient privacy.

“There have been a further eight SA Health staff who have received formal disciplinary action for inappropriately accessing patient records,” Mr Snelling said.

“Two have been dismissed and the others have received formal warnings.

“The majority of our 31,000 staff do the right things in hospitals. It is disappointing a small minority has tarnished the reputation of others.”

Mr Snelling labelled the SA Health snoopers “nosey parkers”.

Opposition Leader Stephen Marshall asked repeated questions on the issue, noting the records of thousands of people may have been compromised.

“I am not about to say how the department goes about monitoring electronic health records any more than the police minister would announce where the random breath testing stations are going to be on Friday night,” Mr Snelling responded.

“The simple fact is it’s done in such a way so that, when records are accessed inappropriately, then we do know about it.

“I can’t promise this won’t happen again because SA Health is a large organisation and I can’t guarantee the behaviour of each and every one of the 31,000 people who work in SA Health.

“If it does happen we will find out about it.”

Mr Marshall insisted an independent judicial inquiry was needed, saying he feared the practice was wider than expected.

“We have over 1.7 million patients on the system here in SA; there’s millions and millions of records that are transacted on a yearly basis,” he said. “How often is this occurring?”

Walsh, 27, has pleaded not guilty to murder and has been remanded in custody until April.