NHS Trust Apologises Over Access to Noah Woods’ Medical Records

• East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust has apologised to Noah Woods’ family after concerns that his medical records may have been viewed inappropriately.¹
• The trust says it launched an urgent investigation and took steps to secure the records and prevent access without a legitimate clinical reason.¹
• It says it reported the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office. No ICO finding or response has been reported.¹
• A separate report put the number of employees at 10 and said they had been removed from duty, but the trust’s public statement did not confirm those details.²

The gap between the apology and the facts still to be established matters. The trust has not publicly said which records were viewed, who accessed them, or whether any access was deliberate. A staff member’s access to a record is not, on its own, proof of snooping; the investigation must establish whether it had a legitimate clinical reason.

The case comes days after NHS England told trust leaders that staff suspected of improperly accessing patient records should be suspended and have their system access removed while investigations take place.³ That national instruction does not confirm what action East Suffolk and North Essex took against any individual staff member. The trust’s investigation should establish what happened—and explain its findings to Noah’s family.

Footnotes

1. Sky News, 27 September 2026. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. AOL report on the reported number of employees and their removal from duty. ↩

3. NHS Employers summary of NHS England’s 25 September guidance. ↩