Investigation into claims Southport victims’ NHS records accessed
An NHS ambulance trust is investigating accusations that staff improperly accessed records of Southport attack victims.
The father of one of the teenage girls seriously injured in the July 2024 attack said he was “horrified” at the prospect and accused staff at the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) of wanting to “indulge their own morbid curiosity”.
In May, it was revealed that dozens of workers at Aintree Hospital, where some of the injured were treated, had looked at records for no apparent reason.
NWAS chief executive Salman Desai said: “We have identified concerns about the possibility of improper access to patient records and are formally investigating the matter.”
Three young girls named Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe were killed in the attack, while 10 people were physically injured.
The father of a girl who was 13 when she was injured but survived the attack said: “This is a complete breach of our trust as a family in our darkest hours and detracts from your feelings about the amazing work they do to save lives.
“It was already incredibly difficult to think that staff at Aintree hospital were unnecessarily investigating our daughter’s case.”
The man cannot be identified due to an anonymity order protecting his daughter, who was supervising a dance class before he was stabbed in the back and arm.
Lawyers acting for the girl and 21 of the 23 girls who survived the attack are calling for a comprehensive review by NHS England of guidance and disciplinary procedures for staff who inappropriately access patient data.
The calls came after another trust, NHS University Hospitals Liverpool Group (UHLG), admitted in May that around 50 staff at Aintree Hospital had improperly looked at the medical records of some of the injured victims in the days after the attack.
Fletchers Solicitors, who are currently investigating the breach, said the family had reviewed documents provided to them by UHLG regarding the breaches at Aintree and found that staff at the North West Ambulance Service may have accessed their daughter’s records without reason.
