Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust announced that a human error in its IT department resulted in the loss of access logs from its maternity records database. The incident occurred on August 18 when staff attempted to create a backup copy of a radiotherapy database for reporting purposes.
The problem stemmed from the reuse of pre-written computer instructions originally developed for a different hospital system. A configuration setting that required modification before execution was overlooked, causing the process to target the maternity database instead of the intended radiotherapy database. This action resulted in the maternity records database being overwritten with data from NUH’s previous maternity system, which contained records spanning from September 2011 to November 2022.
While the trust was able to recover patient care information such as clinical notes, observations, and test results, it was unable to fully restore the access logs that document who viewed specific maternity records during the 11-year period. This means the hospital cannot definitively confirm in most cases whether particular individuals accessed specific patient records. The trust stated that the current patient care operations remain unaffected and that no patient information was accessed or misused as a result of the incident. Senior leadership expressed regret for any concern caused to affected families.
The data loss occurs as NUH faces a broader police investigation into allegations that over 500 mothers and babies experienced preventable harm or death due to systemic failures in the maternity department, issues documented in a review released earlier this year. Nottinghamshire Police is now examining whether the recent data loss impacts this larger investigation and whether criminal charges may be warranted. A representative from the police stated that no crime has been identified at present. Nottingham Maternity Family Group, representing some affected families, described the data loss as deeply concerning, noting that families already dealing with preventable harm should not face additional worries about record security.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI