Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust disclosed that a technical mistake resulted in the loss of access logs spanning an 11-year period from its maternity records system. The incident occurred on August 18 during routine work in the IT department. The error took place while staff were attempting to create a backup copy of a radiotherapy database for reporting functions.
According to the hospitals’ account, the process relied on pre-written computer code that had been used previously for a different system within the organization. A configuration setting that required modification before executing the process was not changed, causing the operation to target the maternity database instead of the intended radiotherapy database. This resulted in the maternity records database being overwritten. The affected database contained information from the hospitals’ former maternity system covering patient records from September 2011 to November 2022.
The hospitals stated that they were unable to fully restore viewing history data, meaning they cannot definitively confirm in most instances whether particular individuals accessed specific maternity records during the affected period. However, the organization successfully recovered actual patient care information, including clinical notes, observations, test results, and other documentation created during treatment. The hospitals emphasized that the data loss does not affect ongoing patient care operations, and no patient information was improperly accessed or used as a result of the incident.
Nottingham University Hospitals management indicated they identified and escalated the problem within minutes and engaged external specialists to maximize data recovery efforts. The chief digital and information officer stated that investigations into patient safety have been completed and measures have been implemented to strengthen technical safeguards and processes. The incident occurs amid a separate police investigation into allegations of harm and deaths at the hospitals’ maternity unit, prompting authorities to examine whether the data loss impacts that broader case. Police indicated that no criminal activity has been identified in connection with the recent loss, though investigations into its potential relevance to other matters remain ongoing.
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