Warnings over NHS data privacy after ‘stalker’ doctor shares woman’s records

Cambridge University hospitals NHS trust, which runs Addenbrooke’s, said it had disciplined the consultant but declined to specify what action it had taken. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

The confidentiality of NHS medical records has been thrown into doubt after a “stalker” hospital doctor accessed and shared highly sensitive information about a woman who had started dating her ex-boyfriend, despite not being involved in her care.

The victim was left in “fear, shock and horror” when she learned that the doctor had used her hospital’s medical records system to look at the woman’s GP records and read – and share – intimate details, known only to a few people, about her and her children.