Nottingham trust dismisses four more staff over attack victims' records as the health secretary calls access a 'disgrace'
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has dismissed four more staff for inappropriately accessing the records of victims of the 2023 Nottingham attacks, taking the total to 15, up from 11 in May, Brit Brief, Time News and DataBreaches.net report. The trust has also issued 15 final written warnings and two first written warnings, the same reports say. The records were those of Barnaby Webber, Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Ian Coates. Separately, Yahoo News UK, Yorkshire Live and Unilad report that two Yorkshire Ambulance Service staff are believed to have accessed or tried to access the records of William Chapman, who died at Yorkshire Wildlife Park on 10 October, without a legitimate reason. Health Secretary Yvette Cooper called the access a 'total disgrace' on Sky News and said staff should be sacked if breaches are confirmed. Brit Brief reports that the trust is introducing a system to detect possible breaches.
Medical records are open to many staff, so the main safeguard is whether someone checks who looked at them and acts on it. The totals rose from 11 in May to 15 now, which shows how long such inquiries can run.
You can ask your GP practice or hospital trust who has accessed your record and why, and you can raise concerns with the Information Commissioner's Office, which the trust has itself informed.
The health secretary's view, as the BBC and Yahoo News UK report it, is that the breaches are a 'disgrace' and that this is a 'total disgrace' and that staff found to have looked without reason should be sacked and suspended during any inquiry.
The trust's account, as Brit Brief reports it, is that it identified the Nottingham breaches itself and is introducing a system to detect possible breaches. Yorkshire Live and Unilad report that the ambulance service has opened an investigation.
Confirmed: the cumulative total of 15 dismissals, not 15 new sackings, and an investigation at Yorkshire Ambulance Service. Not confirmed: that any ambulance staff have breached rules, because the staff are only 'believed' to have accessed the records. Watch for the ambulance service's findings.
DailyDrop U.K. edition No. 15 · Morning · MON., OCT. 19, 2026