NHS investigates alleged access to tiger victim's records
Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust has opened an investigation into two members of staff over claims they accessed the records of William Chapman without a legitimate reason, The Guardian following his death in a tiger enclosure.
The trust said there may have been two instances in which two staff members accessed or attempted to access incident and medical information linked to the Yorkshire Wildlife Park incident without authorisation. It said the potential breach had been reported to the Information Commissioner's Office, the United Kingdom's data protection regulator, and that Chapman's family had been informed of the ongoing information governance inquiry.
Chapman, 23, died after climbing into the tiger enclosure at the park. He was mauled to death by Altai, a 200kg male Siberian tiger. Paramedics from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service attended the scene and confirmed his death.
The fatal attack occurred on a Saturday, Reuters according to the initial report of the incident. The park reopened on Friday after being closed since the attack.
An opening hearing in the inquest into Chapman's death heard that he had schizophrenia and had experienced bouts of psychosis, but was highly functioning and independent with no care requirements. Concerns about his contact with mental health services before his death were raised at that hearing, The Independent according to its account of the proceedings.
Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust has launched an investigation into its contact with Chapman. Chapman was a self-employed online trader living in Doncaster at the time of his death. An initial postmortem found he died from multiple traumatic injuries. A full inquest is scheduled for 18 March.
