SA Health has forced eight staff to quit their jobs for accessing the medical records of the police commissioner’s son, Charlie Stevens, who was killed in a car crash last year.
It’s also been revealed another staff member is now being investigated, while almost a dozen others have been sanctioned.
“This is being treated so extremely seriously,” Health Minister Chris Picton said.
The electronic privacy breaches came to light during an audit conducted in July, which uncovered the involvement of up to 19 staff members across various positions, including administrative personnel, nurses, and doctors.
After months of investigation, 10 individuals were found to have engaged in misconduct related to the file and were issued warnings and sanctions.
However, another eight who directly accessed clinical information were deemed to have committed a more serious offence and have now lost their jobs.
The group of employees was told to resign as opposed to being sacked. Picton said all were given their entitlements.
“The thing about electronic patient records is that you can track what’s happened and when things were accessed and so this is a message to everybody in SA Health to make sure that they do follow the rules,” Picton said.
SA Health once again apologised to the Stevens family.
This article was produced with the assistance of 9ExPress.
