Campaigners in the group Justice4Patients have filed a claim with the Supreme Court of the Falkland Islands today in respect of breaches of Constitutional right to privacy and family life.
The group says it seeks to highlight the failure of the Falkland Islands Government (FIG) in preventing almost 300 patient medical files from being accessed without cause and made a statement outside the Falkland Islands Court and Council Chambers this afternoon:
“The basis of the claim is the emotional harm and distress caused by the unauthorised access to our medical records, and the medical records of close family members, by staff in the medical department.
“In addition, we seek to highlight the failure by FIG to prevent such unauthorised access from occurring in the first place and the weak and ineffectual response from the government once the data breaches were discovered.”
As well as the claim of breach of rights under the Falkland Islands Constitution, the group also believes the government has failed to uphold its obligations towards them under the European Convention on Human Rights.
Letters were written to 289 patients of the Kind Edward VII Memorial Hospital in 2022 telling them their medical records had been accessed by a member of staff who had no reason to do so. The information accessed included patient consultation histories, referral documents, mental health records, and antenatal appointments. Justice4Patients says:
“While there have been some weak comments from the government about regret, we believe that FIG has fundamentally failed to recognise the deep and lasting damage these breaches have caused to many people across the islands.”
The group says FIG has failed “to take adequate steps to acknowledge the harm caused” and failed to enact changes to prevent further breaches after a different court case in 2021.
Justice4Patients believe that the issue is being “swept under the carpet to protect the reputation of the government over the interests of patients” and says:
“Given the gravity of the situation and the lack of a meaningful response from FIG so far, and a refusal by the Governor to order a public inquiry, we have today written to the UK Government Minister with responsibility for the Overseas Territories to inform him of what we believe is a failure of good governance which could amount to a cover up.”
As well as the Supreme Court claim the group has listed four demands of FIG:
- A full, detailed and sincere public apology from FIG to everyone affected by
the unauthorised access to their medical records. This apology must
acknowledge the harm caused by breaching our fundamental right to privacy - FIG must commission an independent public inquiry into the circumstances of
the breaches in order to understand what went wrong, the extent of the
damage caused, how FIG responded once the breaches were discovered and
to make recommendations to prevent this happening again. - A Care Quality Commission-style inspection of the Medical Department. We
are aware that a partial inspection took place recently following pressure from
our group to MLAs but it wasn’t full and excluded maternity services, General
practice and the emotional well being service. - Meaningful compensation to everyone affected by the unauthorised access.
The group says it wants to be clear it “recognises the important work done by staff in the medical department in caring for patients on a daily basis” and the complaint relates to “underlying organisational and cultural problems around confidentiality within the department and FIG rather than trying to focus on any particular individuals.”
For those affected by these breaches or who want to find out more the group can be contacted at Justice4patients@hotmail.com