Investigation into NHS staff over access to teenager’s records

Oliver with his parents. Credit: Family handout.

By Erin Dean

A number of healthcare staff, including at least one doctor, are under investigation for potentially inappropriately accessing the medical records of teenager Oliver McGowan after his death.

At least five members of staff at Bristol Foundation NHS Trust may have accessed the records of Oliver since he died in 2016, his parents have been told.

At present two nurses and one nursing student employed by the trust are under formal investigation, while a doctor who used to work for the trust has self-referred to the General Medical Council.

A fourth individual remains under separate review with the trust’s chief medical officer, the organisation told his parents, Paula and Tom McGowan.

Other former employees have also been contacted by the organisation asking them why they accessed the records of Oliver, whose death led to NHS mandatory training on learning disability and autism.

'Final number cannot be confirmed'

“The final number of inappropriate accesses, and the total number involving professionally registered individuals, cannot therefore be confirmed until the outstanding investigations and enquiries have concluded,” the trust told the McGowans, in communication shared with Doctors.net.uk.