TWO hospital workers who were sacked for accessing a colleague’s medical records have launched action for unfair dismissal, claiming that an investigation into the allegations against them was flawed.

Clinical scientist Rose Hill and biomedical scientist Allison Weston, who both deny any wrongdoing, accuse the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust of regarding a computer audit trail as “infallible” evidence against them.

The scientists, who were sacked from their jobs at Worcestershire Royal Hos-pital in 2010, claim the NHS computer system was “corruptible” and that managers pre-judged their case. Neither claimant has given evidence in person to an employment tribunal in Birmingham, but both have submitted written statements.

Mrs Hill, of Alfrick, near Worcester, and Mrs Weston, of Kidderminster, were dismissed in August and Oct-ober 2010 after an investigation by the trust into allegations made by Patient A – a hospital employee who claimed her test results had been accessed. Mrs Hill, who joined the pathology department at Worcester Royal Infirmary in September 1965 as a junior lab technician, said in her statement that she was “incredulous” at the allegation against her.

The 62-year-old said: “To have accessed the results, I would have needed to know that the tests had been sent and on what day.

“I would like to reiterate that at no time have I accessed Patient A’s personal medical records as alleged.

“I was fully aware of the trackability in the computer system and trained other members of staff on a regular basis about not misusing medical records. For me to have taken this step with my level of knowledge would have been extremely stupid.

“The suggestion that Allison Weston and I should have independently looked at Patient A’s test results, or conspired to do so, when both of us were fully familiar with the traceability of the computer system, I find incredulous.”

Mrs Hill said it was clear that the computer records could be altered. In her statement, Mrs Weston, who began working for the trust in 1998, alleged that managers did not carry out a fair and impartial investigation into the allegations made against her by Patient A.

The tribunal was told that Patient A asserted that her test results were accessed by both Mrs Hill and Mrs Weston in October 2008.

Mrs Weston, 53, said that Patient A was “very volatile” and had intimidated her before she was made aware of her claims in June 2009.

In her submission to the tribunal, Mrs Weston suggested that the audit trail was corruptible and that passwords were not needed to access the system if a computer left a user logged in.