A hospital has banned staff from using social networking websites after a picture of one of its nurses baring her breasts appeared on Facebook.
The image was discovered earlier this year and Northampton General Hospital has since disciplined a number of employees.
The photograph showed the nurse alongside a fully-clothed colleague and inadvertently included a patient in the background.
Hospital chief executive Helen O’Shea said: “We were extremely disappointed on discovering the image, and took steps to have it removed immediately.
“The staff involved were disciplined, and we issued a reminder to all staff that we expect them to maintain patient confidentiality and professional standards at all times.”
A hospital spokesman added: “We were unable to tell whether the image was added from an NGH computer, but nevertheless the trust blocked access to all social networking sites from its PCs as a result of this incident, in addition to taking disciplinary action against the staff involved.”
The hospital said that the photograph was “inappropriate” and constituted a breach of patient confidentiality because it showed an “unauthorised disclosure of one patient image”.
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