Unlawfully Accessing Patient Records: Compensation Claim Advice

Unlawfully accessing patient records can not only amount to an illegal act, but can also pave the way for the victim whose information has been misused and/or exposed to claim data breach compensation.

Victims could be eligible to claim damages on a No Win, No Fee basis with our leading team of privacy compensation specialists. We are happy to provide free, no-obligation legal advice if you have been notified about an incident where your medical records have been unlawfully accessed. We can normally tell you quickly if your situation is one that we can assist with.

You can speak to the team for free, no-obligation legal advice here now.

Claiming for unlawfully accessing patient records

Unlawfully accessing patient records can amount to an illegal action where an individual caught engaging in such behaviour could be prosecuted and fined. The GDPR recognises that we have the right to control who knows what about us, and this is particularly important when it comes to sensitive information. Ultimately, our medical information is some of the most personal and sensitive that there can be about us which is why it can often be seen as “special category information” in accordance with the law.

The additional protection and focus in respect of medical information is there to make sure that we can have control over who knows what about us. It is important that action is taken in any cases where unlawfully accessing patient records has occurred. Although the regulator has the responsibility for issuing prosecutions, it is our role as Leading Data Leak Lawyers to represent people in private compensation claims.

The GDPR can entitle the victim of a medical data breach to claim compensation for any distress that they have suffered that is caused by the loss of control of their personal information. To succeed with the legal case, we will normally need to establish that some form of negligence has occurred, so it is important that we are able to prove this in a claim. It is important to note that the intentional actions of an individual do not always allow a person to claim as the responsibility can fall so far outside of the employing organisation. However, if more could and should have been done to have prevented such an incident occurring, perhaps by way of better training, monitoring or auditing, and even through better access restriction, there may be a case to pursue.

If we can represent you for a claim for compensation then we may be able to offer to do so on a No Win, No Fee basis.

Recent ICO prosecution

Unfortunately, the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) has had to prosecute a number of individuals over unlawfully accessing patient records. Last month they issued an additional notification of one such incident.

According to the ICO, a former health advisor was prosecuted for obtaining personal information of service users who were patients of the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust. The ICO determined that the health adviser in question unlawfully accessed the records during the course of his employment and viewed information for 14 patients who were personally known to him. As a result of his actions, he pleaded guilty to six counts of unlawfully obtaining personal data and has been ordered to pay compensation totalling £3,000.

You can read more about the ICO publication of the latest prosecution here.

Free, no-obligation legal advice

Our expert legal team is always happy to provide free, no-obligation legal advice to anyone who may need our help. All you need to do is contact us here now and we can talk about what has happened and we can let you know quickly if your case is one that we can pursue for you.

If we can take the claim forward, you can instruct us on the very same call that you first contact us on and we can get the ball rolling without delay should you wish us to do so.

Compensation for compromised financial data

Have you been affected by a healthcare data breach?