A MIDWIFERY assistant who described herself as nosy snooped into 29 people’s medical records including a man who had taken an overdose and parents of her children’s friends.

Brioney Woolfe was reported to the head of midwifery at Colchester General Hospital when someone discovered their medical records had been shared with her ex-partner.

An investigation then uncovered a series of data protection breaches during December 2014 and May 2016.

Charlotte Brewer, prosecuting, told Colchester magistrates, Woolfe, 28, had accessed personal information without consent of 23 women and six men.

Twenty-one of these were accessed through the Medway patient portal system, which holds medical records, but only two were pregnant.

Ms Brewer added: “She would look up friends’ records.

“If her children had been invited to a birthday party, she’d look up their parents’ details.

“In interviews she said this was never done maliciously and she is a generally nosy person.”

Woolfe, of Stour Close, Dovercourt, admitted obtaining personal data and disclosing personal data.

The mum-of-two has now lost her job of 12 years at the NHS trust, where she had an “unblemished record” said Raphael Pigott, mitigating.

She began as a secretary in Clacton before training to become a healthcare assistant, working in Harwich and Colchester’s maternity units.

But with Harwich being a small town, she found herself being approached by friends and acquaintances to access information they were waiting for from doctors.

Mr Piggot said: “She lived in Clacton before moving to Harwich and used one of the IT systems to find contact details for people she knew.

“Then there was the one occasion where her ex-partner feared for the safety of another person. At the very least it’s inappropriate and she knows she shouldn’t have done it.

“It was foolish on her part and she paid quite dearly for it. Gaining employment is now proving difficult given why she lost her job.”

The court also heard Woolfe’s mental health had suffered as a result of the area’s maternity units being under threat.

Her depression and anxiety worsened as she was being pushed to work unsociable hours around childcare and work uncertainty.

Chairman of the bench, Donald Wicks, said: “These are serious charges. You breached patient confidentiality and passed information on to a third party.”

She was fine a total of £1,050 for the offences and was also ordered to pay an additional £665 in costs, totalling £1,715.