A Fife nurse who accessed the medical records of a builder with whom she was involved in a legal wrangle has been struck off.
Mental health nurse Kay Ovens also looked at records of some friends, as she said she was concerned about their health. And she allowed a colleague to use her password to access their father’s records.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing into her conduct found there was ”clearly a culture of accessing information on family members” not confined to the day hospital at Queen Margaret Hospital where she worked. However, Ms Ovens was struck off for what was viewed as a gross breach of her powers and privileges.
She was working at Hill View day hospital when the offences came to light. She was found to have inappropriately accessed medical records of four different people, who were not related to her clinical practice, on eight separate occasions between June and December of 2009. This included the builder with whom she was involved in a legal dispute.
During that time she also let a colleague access their father’s records.
The panel heard that a password-protected electronic system was in operation to allow authorised staff access to laboratory results of all patients registered in Fife. Concerns were first raised by the senior charge nurse in December 2009, following an incident the previous month and a conversation he had had with Ms Ovens.
He then reported his concerns to the clinical service manager and, following an investigation, Ms Ovens acknowledged accessing the records of people who were not in her care and admitted she was in a legal dispute with one of those involved.
Following this, Mr Short investigated the accounts of all members of staff in the day hospital and found it was not uncommon practice for them to use colleagues’ passwords to access information.
Ms Ovens was sacked in 2010 and the matter referred to the NMC.
Ms Ovens did not appear at the NMC hearing where the panel found she had not acted openly and honestly in disclosing her actions to her employers. Although there was no evidence she passed on information, by accessing records she did not respect patients’ rights to the confidentiality they were entitled to expect from a health professional, the panel said.
”The panel considers Ms Ovens committed a gross breach of her powers and privileges. By doing so Ms Ovens jeopardised the trust and confidence that the public and her employers invested in her.”
While they said there was no evidence that patients had been directly harmed by her actions, they considered she had brought the profession into disrepute.
”The panel did consider the wider public and specifically Mr A and the potential psychological distress that could have been caused upon discovering records had been accessed without consent.”
It added her actions were not isolated and were ”plainly deliberate” and took into account she had told her employer she regretted what she had done and was ”sorry for the nightmare it had led to”. But they felt her expression of regret was limited because it had not seen evidence she had appreciated the seriousness of what she had done.
A spokeswoman for NHS Fife said: ”We can confirm Kay Ovens is not currently employed by NHS Fife. NHS Fife does not comment further on staff, past or present.”