Nottingham hospital trust dismisses 15 staff for accessing attack victims’ records

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust has dismissed 15 staff for illegally accessing medical records of the Nottingham attack victims, the trust announced during a statutory public inquiry into the attacks.

The dismissed staff included doctors, nurses, registered healthcare professionals and other hospital employees. Besides the dismissals, the trust gave 15 final written warnings and two first written warnings. The trust has informed the Nursing and Midwifery Council, General Medical Council, Information Commissioner’s Office and Nottinghamshire Police about the investigation.

A new system to protect patient records is currently under testing and will alert the trust to potential breaches. The trust ran a “Your Responsibility, Your Actions, Their Privacy” campaign to teach staff about data protection and the serious consequences of rule violations.

Investigations continue into inappropriate access to the records of surviving victims. Dr Manjeet Shehmar said there is no excuse for accessing patient records without a legitimate reason. He added that the trust will investigate and take action as necessary. The trust reviewed two cases and found no basis for action, so none was taken.

The trust announced the dismissals during a statutory public inquiry into the Nottingham attacks that heard from 164 witnesses between February and June 2026. Retired senior judge Deborah Taylor KC heads the inquiry, which will release its findings by May 2027.

Under the Mental Health Act, health authorities had sectioned Valdo Calocane four times, and the inquiry heard he had interacted with police in relation to violent incidents. He faces an indefinite hospital order after admitting manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility linked to paranoid schizophrenia, with the plea dating back to January 2024.

An inquiry launched in December 2024 looked into claims that Ministry of Justice employees had illegally accessed computer files about the Nottingham attacks. The inquiry also heard that court workers inappropriately accessed information about the Nottingham attack case in January 2024.

Investigators found that seven probation service officers had accessed the Nottingham attack information, and three of them lacked a legitimate reason for doing so. Nottinghamshire Police staff viewed attack‑related footage and images many times without a legitimate policing purpose.

The police force said it would audit the number of views of the information following a complaint by Emma Webber in March.

Since 2020, more than 200 NHS staff in England have lost their jobs for snooping on patients’ records; additionally, 2,000 others have faced sanctions for snooping on patients’ records since 2020, per a Sky News and Health Service Journal investigation. One NHS staff member lost their job after looking at as many as 179 individuals’ records, while another viewed their spouse’s information in a possible domestic‑violence case.

According to freedom‑of‑information replies from 140 trusts, 214 staff had lost their jobs in the previous five years, three faced suspension and 540 got final written warnings in that period. Health minister Gillian Merron said that health service organisations recorded 1,445 instances of improper access reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office from 2019 through 2025. The families of the attack victims welcomed the dismissals but called the May development a “kick in the teeth”.