Gemma Sabatino spent two months in Addenbrooke’s Hospital after falling from a bridge and was also under the care of the hospital’s mental health and cancer teams when she says records were accessed
A woman with terminal cancer says she feels ‘violated and humiliated’ after she claims multiple hospital staff members accessed her medical files and shared graphic photos of her undergoing surgery.
Gemma Sabatino fell from a bridge in November 2023, and had to undergo surgery during her two-month stay at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge. Her family first believed people were wrongfully accessing her medical records after a friend said she overheard a woman talking about Gemma at a hair salon. The woman apparently claimed she had seen parts of Gemma’s medical records and that screenshots of photographs taken while Gemma was in surgery were being sent around on WhatsApp.
‘Doctors thought lump on my breast was a cyst – it turned out to be cancer’
Gemma, originally from Cambridge’s Cherry Hinton neighbourhood, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024 and moved to a hospice on March 12 this year. She requested information about five people she believes may have wrongfully accessed her medical files from Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Addenbrooke’s, in November 2024.
Gemma said these people knew her or knew of her, either as friends or friends of friends, but they appeared to have no link to Gemma’s care. The trust told Gemma that access by three of the five staff members was ‘inappropriate’, in an email seen by CambridgeshireLive. In that same email, the trust claimed that two staff members had accessed Gemma’s files for ‘legitimate reasons’.
A Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust spokesperson said: “We have received a complaint from one patient relating to alleged inappropriate access to their medical information. Any allegations of this nature are taken very seriously and we are investigating in accordance with our Trust policies.”
Gemma believes staff accessed files related to her fall, cancer diagnosis and mental health, including conversations with her psychologist and breast nurse. She said: “I feel violated, humiliated, and like there is no respect. I felt safe when I was in hospital. Information I didn’t know about myself and things I hadn’t seen has been viewed. I think it is absolutely disgusting that they looked at photos of me in surgery, but viewing the files relating to my cancer diagnosis has hurt the most. It is so personal.
“They have read notes from the calls between me and my breast nurse. We talk about things I don’t feel comfortable talking about with anyone else. They have read notes from my psychologist – things I wouldn’t even tell my family. They have printed my drugs list. It is just weird. Anything they could look at, they looked at. I feel like I have given them so much trust to look after me. I have been really let down.”
Gemma has reported the trust to the Information Commissioner’s Office, which told her in an email that the ‘inappropriate’ access by staff at the trust had been “recorded as an infringement of the data protection laws”. She went on to say: “It has done a lot of mental damage to me. I have had sleepless nights. I shouldn’t be doing this – I should just be spending my last moments with my family.
“What really, really hurts is that I have got a lot of close friends and family members who work for the NHS and they don’t look at my files. These people were upset and they didn’t have a clue what was happening to me, while people who wanted to gossip did.”
Gemma moved to West Suffolk Hospital for her cancer treatment after she was left feeling “uncomfortable” at Addenbrooke’s. However, she is still under the care of the mental health team at the Cambridge hospital, something she says she struggles with. She explained: “I get scared to tell people at Addenbrooke’s how I am feeling. I have stopped talking with my mental health team now. There is no safe space to talk any more. I just think: give me a break. I do not want to go out of this world feeling like this. My pride and my dignity has been hurt.”
Gemma described the staff who looked after her and saved her life after her fall as “amazing”, emphasising that it is not these people or Addenbrooke’s Hospital in its entirety that she has been hurt by. Angelina Sabatino, Gemma’s sister, said Gemma’s family feels ‘so deeply disturbed’. She continued: “My sister has been at her most vulnerable for the last 16 months. She is in the last stages of her life. It is the biggest violation of privacy in her weakest moments.”
Angelina believes there should be more focus on upholding data privacy laws in hospitals. She suggested that a threat of stronger sanctions such as prison time may prevent staff members from wrongfully accessing files. A Cambridgeshire Police spokesperson commented: “We are aware of allegations of potential data breaches at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. We are working closely with the hospital and are awaiting the outcome of an internal investigation before deciding on next steps.”
