Galician High Court acquits doctor of medical record access charges

The High Court of Justice of Galicia (TSXG) has acquitted a doctor from the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de A Coruña (Chuac) who was previously convicted for allegedly accessing a colleague's medical records.

The initial ruling by the Provincial Court of A Coruña had imposed a sentence of three and a half years in prison and a six-year disqualification from her profession, based on the premise that she had unauthorizedly consulted the history of a colleague with whom she had a poor relationship.

However, the TSXG overturned the sentence following appeals from both the Public Prosecutor and the physician. The court cited a potential error in the assessment of evidence, noting that IT officials from the hospital complex testified that it was impossible to determine if any data had been accessed or which specific data might have been viewed. The court noted that any such access would have been recorded in the system logs, which did not provide conclusive proof of the alleged breach.