Nottingham University Hospitals loses 11 years of maternity record viewing history due to IT error

Maternity Record Viewing History Lost

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH) announced that a "human error" in its IT department resulted in the loss of 11 years of maternity record viewing history. The incident, which occurred on August 18, affected records from September 2011 to November 2022.

Cause of the Data Loss

The data loss stemmed from routine technical work intended to create a copy of a radiotherapy database. Pre-written computer instructions, previously used for a different hospital system, were executed on the maternity database instead of the radiotherapy database because a critical setting was not changed. This caused the maternity records database to be overwritten.

Impact on Data Retrieval

While NUH was able to restore patient care-related data, including notes, observations, and test results, the complete history of who viewed maternity records during the affected period could not be retrieved. This means NUH may be unable to confirm whether a specific person viewed a maternity record between September 2011 and November 2022.

Response to the Incident

NUH stated that the problem was escalated within minutes of identification. The trust worked with external specialists and reviewed other information sources to recover as much data as possible. The incident underscores the importance of stringent procedures and checks in IT operations, particularly when handling sensitive patient data.