Foyle Women’s Aid chief ‘appalled’ at Trust’s treatment of domestic abuse survivor

Marie Brown, chief executive of Foyle Women’s Aid said she was ‘appalled’ a Derry mother fleeing domestic violence had had her hospital records illegally accessed.

The young woman, who wished to remain anonymous, received written confirmation of the data breach from Western Health and Social Care Trust chief executive, Neil Guckian.

Hospital records of Derry domestic violence survivor illegally accessed

'The scariest bit for me is that someone was trying to find out my address' - Domestic violence survivor

In his letter of apology, Mr Guckian confirmed to the woman her records had been unlawfully accessed by a member of her ex-partner’s family, a Trust employee, seeking to discover her address.

Foyle Women’s Aid provides domestic abuse and sexual violence services in Derry, Strabane, Limavady and Dungiven and Ms Brown said she was ‘hugely disappointed’ in the Trust.

Speaking to Derry News, Ms Brown said having worked with a lot of victims of domestic violence, the woman’s situation must have been “high risk when she took the precaution of moving house and putting her child and herself through a lot of upheaval”.

She added: “I am disappointed in a Trust. We are already looking at the undermining of victims in the Western Trust and the lengths they have to go to to protect themselves. It is another case and it is disappointing is all I can say.”

Neil Guckian informed the woman concerned “the staff member has been spoken to about the incident by senior staff and has been instructed to retake the Trust’s Information Governance Awareness training.”

Marie Brown expressed concern at the leniency of the sanction.

“I think it was a very lenient sanction to be honest because it wasn’t an accident,” she said.

“Things can happen. Any one of us could accidentally press a button but this was a very intentional act, so there was no accident about it. There was no regard for a victim here. There was no regard for her safety, for her confidentiality. There was no regard for a child’s confidentiality and safety either.

“We work with women all of the time who are facing risk and they are told they have to protect their children all of the time, sometimes when they are not in a position to do so. They are often scared and there are sanctions against them if they don’t do it properly.

“However, when it comes to a professional working within a health service whose job it is to ensure child protection is in place, has a completely different view when it is their staff member.

“The Trust put this woman at risk. It had no regard for the victim. I can tell you it is very hard for a victim who is going through this, firstly to come forward and then to take steps like moving house. This would have been an upheaval for her and an upheaval for her child, and the Trust took no regard for all of the steps this woman took to protect herself and her child,” said Marie Brown.

Ms Brown described victims as the best measure of their own risk.

She added: “We can have risk assessments and people can have views but victims quite often are the best people because they know the situation. They know the other person. They know the risk they risk they have been in. For that reason, the Trust’s disregard of that risk must have been devastating for her.

“As an organisation, Women’s Aid would feel domestic violence isn’t really taken seriously. Did nobody in the Trust think through what could have happened in that situation?

“What more has to happen? We have had 21 homicides in a period of three years. What has to happen for people to realise that this is very serious and we all need to take it seriously?

“For me it is about the woman’s confidentiality and I think it goes wider because what does that say about anybody’s confidentiality when something like this can happen? What message is it giving out to others who do this? Will they think it is okay because it is just a soft sanction and really our records aren’t confidential?” said Marie Brown.

Ms Brown emphasised that victims of domestic violence “work extremely hard to keep themselves safe and they are very frightened”.

“I just think there has not been any thought given to the disappointment for that victim,” she added.

“I can see why they are really, really upset and hurt. Where does that leave them? Are they still at risk? Do they have to move again? No thought has been given to any of that. I was just shocked at the sanction to be honest.

“If a family member had wanted to contact that person, there were other means of doing it. We live in a small area. You could go to a relative.

“The address was something that mother was trying to keep really private and this is what is done with that information. Who was it for really? Were there any questions asked around that? I don’t believe that if someone wanted to find somebody in our local area they couldn’t find them.

“There is a pattern. There is a behaviour. It was a family member or a relation for a period of time. Somebody could have been sent a message to say, ‘I just want to get my grandchild something’. There are ways and means of doing that without going in illegally and getting the information and breaching confidentiality.

“So, I wonder, were those questions asked? Were alternative methods sought because I am not accepting that either as an excuse?” said Ms Brown.

The Foyle Women’s Aid chief executive said she was anxious to highlight the possible consequences of the Trust employee’s action.

She added: “What if this had ended up in a serious attack, as has happened?

“I just think it comes back to the fact domestic abuse isn’t taken seriously. There aren't the safeguards in place that should be.”

A spokesperson for the Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) said: “Protecting patient confidentiality and privacy is a matter of the utmost importance to us.

“The Trust takes any breach of confidentiality extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with the Data Protection Act.”