THE health trust which runs the borough's general hospital will not reveal how many people have access to YOUR confidential medical records, it has emerged.

Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRT), which runs King George Hospital in Ilford, refused to answer a freedom of information request about how many non-medical staff can access protected patient data, according to the Big Brother Watch group.

All 140 NHS Acute Trusts in Britain and Northern Ireland were asked, and BHRT was one of just 43 which refused to answer – along with neighbouring Whipps Cross University Hospitals NHS Trust.

The report found that 101,272 non-medical personnel have access to patient records, which averages out at 723 per trust.

Big Brother Watch estimates that as many as 140,000 staff not directly involved in patient care could have access to the data, if all trusts were to respond.

It also says that trusts which fail to restrict access solely to staff working directly with patients on a medical basis are in contravention of a ruling made by the European Court of Human Right in 2008.

The research found that the worst offender in London was Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, which allows 2,041 non-medical staff access, putting it in third place in the UK.

BHRT has been at the centre of a storm of controversy over plans, devised by Health for North East London, to shut Redbridge's only A&E at King George's, as well as it's maternity services, and shift resources to Whipps Cross and Queen's in Romford.

A 16-week public consultation into the plans ended on Monday, with the results expected some time towards the end of the summer.