Call centre advisor illegally accessed child’s info

An NHS 111 call centre advisor illegally accessed a child’s personal data after arguing with the father about the distance he had to travel to take his son for treatment, a court heard.

Martin Swan, 56, was working as an NHS 111 call centre advisor in February 2016 when the anxious dad phoned to say his son had reacted badly to some medication.

He was told he would receive a call back from the GP in a couple of hours, Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court heard.

Mustapha Rashid, who prosecuted on behalf of the Information Commissioner’s Office, said at 4pm the same day, the father called 111 again as he had not yet received a call back.

‘Mr Swan took this call. There was a disagreement between Mr Swan and the child’s father about the distance to the minor injuries unit 111 was sending them to.

‘As a result [the father] asked to speak to Mr Swan’s supervisor, Mr Swan said his supervisor was currently unavailable and that he should take his son to A&E for emergency care.’

The child’s father made a complaint with 111 about Swan and on 11 June 2016 an investigation meeting was held.

‘At this meeting Mr Swan produced screenshots showing he had accessed patient notes of the [child] which he had no authorisation to do so.

‘Mr Swan explained he had accessed the files to substantiate his own personal investigation.’

On 17 June 2016 a disciplinary meeting was arranged for Swan, but he did not attend.

He then failed to attend a second meeting on 12 July.

Swan sent an email to the child’s father from his professional email account and a letter
to the father accusing him of falsifying events.

Swan was dismissed for gross misconduct on 1 November 2016.

But he contacted the child’s father again on 1 January 2017 via his personal Yahoo email acount saying he would report the child’s father to the NHS for child neglect.

The information was passed onto the Information Commissioner’s Office and Swan was invited for interview under caution.

‘On 30 November 2017 Mr Swan did admit to accessing that material and said he accessed records to find out the type of person he was dealing with.

‘He admitted to accessing material of all four members of the child’s family without permission,’ said Mr Rashid.

Swan failed to attend court back on 30 April 2018, and an arrest warrant was issued.

He finally surrendered to the warrant on 17 January this year.

Wearing a black check shirt and black jeans, Swan admitted five charges of obtaining and disclosing personal data.

Swan, of North View, Pinner, northwest London was fined a total of £630 with £400 costs and a £63 victim surcharge, making a total of £1,093.

Andy Curry, Head of Investigations at ICO, said: ‘When seeking medical help, people should never have to think twice about how their information is handled and whether their patient records are secure.

‘The NHS 111 helpline offers a valuable service and people need to trust that the handlers operating this service are being responsible with the details provided.

‘This case shows that the ICO will take action when personal records are accessed unlawfully. As well as being an invasion of privacy, these actions jeopardise the trust built between the service and its users.’
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