NHS England chief demands immediate suspension for suspected patient-record snooping
NHS England chief executive Jim Mackey has told health trusts to suspend staff suspected of accessing medical records without clinical justification and immediately remove their computer access. His call follows reports of repeated breaches, while the Information Commissioner’s Office says inappropriate access remains rare compared with the wider health workforce.
Staff in England’s National Health Service who are suspected of accessing patients’ medical records without a clinical reason should be suspended immediately, NHS England chief Jim Mackey has said. Mr. Mackey urged the country’s 205 health trusts to adopt a zero-tolerance approach to unauthorised access.
He said suspected staff should be removed from their posts and barred from NHS computer systems while investigations take place. “Patient records contain some of the most private information people will ever share,” he said in a message to trusts. He argued that staff should not retain access to confidential records during investigations that could last days or weeks.
His intervention follows concern that employees who view records out of curiosity or for improper reasons do not consistently face meaningful penalties. Reports have highlighted suspected access to the records of victims of the 2023 Nottingham attacks and the 2024 Southport stabbings, among other cases. An investigation by Sky News and the Health Service Journal found that since 2020 more than 200 NHS staff in England had been dismissed and 2,000 sanctioned for snooping.
Responses from 140 trusts to freedom-of-information requests recorded 214 dismissals, three suspensions and 540 final written warnings over five years. Examples included an employee who accessed as many as 179 people’s records, a worker who viewed a spouse’s details in a potential domestic-abuse situation, and staff who shared information through WhatsApp groups. The Information Commissioner’s Office said in June that inappropriate access was rare and did not reflect the conduct of the vast majority of healthcare workers.
Health minister Gillian Merron said in July that health bodies had reported 1,445 cases of inappropriate access to the ICO between 2019 and 2025. Mr. Mackey warned that unauthorised access could cost employees their careers and potentially lead to criminal records.
His instruction seeks to make immediate suspension and removal of system access routine while allegations are examined.
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