Former employee filmed the patient's NRIC number, full name, date of birth, address, contact numbers
A former employee of the National University Hospital (NUH) in Singapore has been fined for accessing a former patient's records without authority, according to reports.
The employee, Pubaneswary Poobalan, is a 39-year-old who served as a senior patient service associate at the NUH, The Straits Times reported.
Pubaneswary received a fine of $3,800 after pleading guilty to one count of misusing a computer system, according to the report.
The fine comes after Pubaneswary accessed a former patient's records without authorisation through the hospital's SAP system, while also filming herself during the act.
According to the former NUH employee, she committed the act after receiving anonymous letters at her home between June and August 2023 about a certain man that the court referred to as "the witness."
Pubaneswary assumed that a certain woman, referred to in court as "the victim," was the one who sent the letters because she knew people in the healthcare industry who could obtain her court address.
A gag order prevented the court from mentioning the identity of the victim and the witness, as well as their connections to Pubaneswary, according to The Straits Times.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Chew said Pubaneswary accessed the victim's records and filmed the victim's NRIC number, full name, date of birth, address, and contact numbers.
"The accused… video-recorded her entire act, as she wanted to prove to the witness that the victim had the capability of obtaining her home address," Chew told the court, as quoted by the Times.
Pubaneswary, however, was not allowed to access the records of patients that did not fall within her purview, according to the Times.
Pubaneswary sent the video to the witness, and while the court did not disclose what happened next, the NUH learned about the video after receiving a complaint from the victim.
The former senior patient service associate confessed to her actions during an internal probe from the NUH, which terminated her and filed a police report.
A spokesperson from the NUH told The Straits Times that they "deeply regret" the incident.
"We have taken immediate steps to request that the involved parties delete the relevant data in their possession," the spokesperson told the news outlet. "Protecting and upholding the confidentiality of patient information is paramount to us, and we do not tolerate the violation of this trust."
