117 Waikato DHB staff access Nicky Stevens’ medical records prior to his death

The family of dead Waikato DHB patient Nicky Stevens were horrified to learn this week from DHB management that 117 different DHB staff had obtained access to Nicky’s confidential medical records held by the DHB.

The admission by DHB management came in an email from DHB ‘Chief of Staff’ Neville Hablous to Nicky’s mother Jane Stevens, and comes on the heels of the disappearance from the DHB’s Henry Bennett centre of crucial clinical records of Nicky’s treatment in the days immediately before his death.

Nicky Stevens’ family had been concerned at the loss of the records, the inability of the DHB or the Police to discover who had uplifted them, and a number of public references by current and former DHB staff to information they believe could only have come from Nicky’s DHB records.

As a result they requested, under the Official Information Act, details on who had access to Nicky’s file, and after three month’s received the attached letter from Hablous.

Ms Stevens said “the DHB tries to explain away what we regard as absolutely excessive staff access to Nicky’s files, but the fact that key documents from Nicky’s files have disappeared, and such a large number of people have had their fingers in the pie, speaks volumes for Waikato DHB’s apalling security and patient confidentiality system.”

“They were incapable of keeping our son safe, and they are incapable of keeping basic patient records safe and secure.”

Commenting on Mr Hablous’ assertion that only two of the staff had ‘unauthorised’ access to the files, Ms Stevens said “It is typical of this DHB management to try and blame a handful of staff for their own systems failures.”

“Anyone that believes it is appropriate for 115 DHB staff to access a mental health patient’s confidential clinical records probably believes in the tooth fairy, alien abduction and Santa Claus as well!”