Suspended: nurse who looked up medical records ‘out of curiosity’
Posted 01 March 2024 - 12:26
School nurse with a history of inappropriately accessing records will be unable to practise for 12 months and would need ‘serious’ supervision in future
A school nurse has been suspended from the register for 12 months after she looked up a child and mother’s medical records several times out of ‘personal curiosity’.
Zeenat Maqsood was referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust in June 2022 after it became aware she had accessed the child’s medical records on three occasions, on 4, 5 and 13, January 2022, along with a further search of their parent. Ms Maqsood admitted searching the records without clinical justification, in a fitness to practise case the NMC called of a ‘high-profile nature’.
History of patient records incidents
She had previously received a final warning from a different employer in August 2019 and a suspension from the register in April 2021 for similar episodes involving patients’ records.
The hearing, which concluded on 23 February, heard that accessing medical records without proper authorisation ‘puts patients at risk of emotional harm’ and that the public should be able to trust that their ‘medical records remain private.
‘The evidence suggests that in other respects you are an excellent nurse’
NMC Fitness to Practise panel report
However, the panel did acknowledge that Ms Maqsood admitted the allegations at an early stage and that she told the panel that if she could, she would apologise to the child and their mother and she realised she had let them down.
Nurse was under stress in her private life
The NMC panel also heard through her union representative that at the time of the incidents Ms Maqsood had been under stress due to circumstances in her private life.
The report said: ‘The panel considered that your actions were the result of poor judgement …that your misconduct was not malicious, and there is no evidence you shared the information you accessed, or used it inappropriately.
‘The evidence suggests that in other respects you are an excellent nurse. However, the panel also bore in mind…misconduct of a similar nature in the past and you have not worked as a registered nurse for the past two years.’
Risk of repetition of misconduct
The NMC noted there was real risk of repetition unless Ms Maqsood was under ‘serious’ supervision.
She was suspended for 12 months, with an initial interim order of 18 months to allow for appeal. Ms Maqsood has 28 days to lodge an appeal against the NMC’s decision.
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