OUTRAGE ERUPTS: Tony Modra Sur-vives Hor-ror Cr-a-sh—Then His Private Medical Records Become the Center of a Shocking Hospital Investigation
Medical staff from SA Health are under investigation for allegedly — and inappropriately — accessing the health records of AFL icon Tony Modra while he was in hospital.
The former Adelaide Crows superstar is now at home after being in a critical condition when a fallen tree branch crashed through the windshield of his truck on June 18.
But it has now been claimed that eight staff (potentially) had “inappropriate access” to the 57-year-old’s medical records during his stint in hospital.
“As a result of a standard audit, three staff are currently under investigation for potential inappropriate access of a Southern Adelaide Local Health Network patient’s record,” an SA Health statement said.
“Another five employees are being assessed to ensure their access was always appropriate. SA Health’s investigations are continuing.
“Our sincerest apologies go to the family for any distress caused.”
Throughout the ordeal Modra and his wife, Erica, have shown sincere gratitude for all their medical assistance, but now SA Premier Peter Malinauskas has called the latest development “disappointing”.
Malinauskas is, however, calling for some caution while the investigation is ongoing.
“I think we’re going to be a bit careful, though, about how we think about this. There are over 50,000 people who work in SA Health now,” he said.
“That’s a number that surprises many. There are over 50,000 people who work in SA Health, and the overall majority of them just work hard every single day and do the right thing.
“It’s unfortunate that a few individuals here have (allegedly) gone beyond their remit and we’ve seen this happen before in other instances with high profile incidents and people get caught and they get caught because we have the systems in place to be able to detect this type of activity.
“So my message to people who would think about doing the wrong thing within SA Health — which is just of course a tiny proportion of the 50,000 people that work there — is just don’t take the risk because you’re going to get caught and it’s not worth it.”
He said it was possible people could lose their jobs for the inappropriate access of health records.
“I mean, if you work in SA Health, you’re there because you’ve been trained with a very particular set of skills. You’ve probably spent years developing those skills to be able to work in SA Health.
“And then if you lose your job because you do the wrong thing … that’s a pretty big punishment.”
Malinauskas said the most important thing, however, was that Modra was recovering well.
“And I can’t just say enough how happy I am for him and his family, not just because Mods is a SA legend and icon, but because he’s actually really a decent person,” he said.
It is not the first time there has been an issue around the access of medical records relating to an AFL figure in South Australia.
When Adelaide Crows coach Phil Walsh was tragically murdered by his son, Cy, in 2015, 13 people from the SA Health system inappropriately accessed Cy Walsh’s records and received sanctions.
In the fallout to that investigation, another two people were fired for looking at other patients’ records, and another six were disciplined.
