Jeremy Hunt has been accused of breaching patient confidentiality by tweeting a photo from a hospital visit.
The health secretary went online to defend his plans to impose new seven-day working contracts after NHS staff flooded Twitter with selfies of themselves in hospitals with the hashtag ImInWorkJeremy.
He wrote a message on Twitter calling for a “modern contract” for doctors and swiftly afterwards posted a picture of himself with medics at University College hospital – although it later emerged the photo was taken on a visit on Friday, not during a weekend shift.
He also came under fire as the photo captured a board listing the patients on the ward in the background. The picture was soon edited, as seen below, to take out the information, but critics demanded Hunt issue an apology for the apparent breach in patient confidentiality.
Fascinating visit 2 see brain surgery at UCLH and inspirational leadership of Neil Kitchen. Thx 4 making me welcome pic.twitter.com/mAQG0eO2Jy
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) July 18, 2015
Dave Jones tweeted the health secretary to demand an apology.
.@Jeremy_Hunt You've hastily edited the photo, now you need to apologise to the patients whose confidentiality you breached.
— Dave Jones (@WelshGasDoc) July 18, 2015
Lauren Nicole Jones pointed out that she could lose her job if she had sent the tweet.
.@Jeremy_Hunt if I tweeted a photo with patient identifiable information to over 70,000 people I would deserve to lose my job as NHS worker.
— Lauren Nicole Jones (@Lauren_SLT) July 18, 2015
The user FayetheGEP, who describes herself as a doctor on her Twitter profile, also wanted to see an apology from Hunt.
.@Jeremy_Hunt about bloody time! Now where's the apology?
— Faye (@FayetheGEP) July 18, 2015
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