GoKawiilNottingham NHS Trust loses 11 years of maternity record access logs to IT error
Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust revealed that a technician's mistake on August 18 overwrote its maternity records database while attempting to copy a radiotherapy database for reporting purposes. The error used outdated instructions meant for another system, and a setting that should have been updated was missed, causing the maternity database covering September 2011 to November 2022 to be wiped instead. While clinical notes, test results and observations were largely recovered, the trust says it cannot restore full logs showing who accessed maternity records during that 11-year period.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
The incident highlights how fragile audit trails can be even when core patient data survives, raising accountability concerns since the trust can no longer verify who viewed sensitive maternity records for over a decade. It also underscores the risks of reusing scripts or automation across different hospital IT systems without rigorous safeguards, a lapse that could have easily been prevented with proper checks.
- A misapplied script meant for radiotherapy data instead overwrote 11 years of maternity records access logs.
- Clinical care data was largely recovered, but access history from 2011 to 2022 remains unrecoverable.
- The case exposes gaps in safeguards for reusing IT scripts across different hospital systems.
Source: arstechnica.com, 2026-09-22
Published there as: “IT mistake erases 11 years of viewing history for hospitals’ maternity records”
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