Pubaneswary Mrs Pubaneswary Poobala was fined $3,800 after she pleaded guilty to one count of misusing a computer system. Pubaneswary Mrs Pubaneswary Poobala was fined $3,800 after she pleaded guilty to one count of misusing a computer system....READ ORIGINAL & FULL CONTENT FROM SOURCE | READ ORIGINAL & FULL CONTENT FROM SOURCE...
SINGAPORE – A senior patient service associate at the National University Hospital (NUH) was on duty when she accessed a former patient’s records despite being not authorised to do so.
Pubaneswary Mrs Pubaneswary Poobalan , 39, also recorded a video of herself accessing the hospital’s “SAP” system – a platform that enables healthcare institutions to perform day-to-day business processes such as maintaining patients’ records, appointment scheduling and billing.
The system also contains records of patients’ personal identification information, medical appointments and billing information. However, it does not contain patients’ medical histories or records.
On April 7, the Singaporean, who is no longer working for NUH, was fined $3,800 after she pleaded guilty to one count of misusing a computer system.
Court documents stated that according to Pubaneswary, she had received several anonymous letters at her home between June and August 2023.
The letters mentioned a certain man, who was referred to as “the witness” in court documents.
Details about his identity and how he was linked to her cannot be disclosed due to a gag order.
Pubaneswary then assumed that a certain woman, referred to as “the victim”, was the one who had sent the letters.
This was because, the woman, who also cannot be named due to a gag order, knew people in the healthcare industry who could help her obtain Pubaneswary’s home address.
In October 2023, Pubaneswary spoke to the witness who rejected her assumptions as he did not believe the victim had the offender’s home address.
An argument then broke out between Pubaneswary and the man.
She was later performing night duty at NUH on Oct 23, 2023, when she recorded a video of herself accessing the SAP system.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Samuel Chew said that as a senior patient service associate, she was allowed to access the system to manage patients’ appointments and billings.
However, she was not supposed to access the records of patients that did not fall within her purview.
Despite this, she searched for the victim’s records by keying in the latter’s first name and date of birth. The search led to a total of four results, one of which was related to the victim.
DPP Chew told the court: “The accused then accessed the victim’s records, and video-recorded the victim’s NRIC number, full name, date of birth, address and contact numbers.
“The accused… video-recorded her entire act, as she wanted to prove to the witness that the victim had the capability of obtaining her home address.”
On Oct 29, 2023, Pubaneswary and the witness had another argument about the anonymous letters.
As the witness continued to reject her assumptions, she sent him the video via WhatsApp in a bid to prove him wrong.
Court documents did not disclose what happened next, but NUH received an online complaint from the victim on May 14, 2024, about the video.
NUH conducted an internal investigation and Pubaneswary admitted that she had accessed the victim’s records on the SAP system without authority.
Responding to queries from The Straits Times, the hospital said it had taken immediate action to file a police report and notify the Ministry of Health.
An NUH spokesperson added: “We hav e taken immediate steps to request that the involved parties delete the relevant data in their possession. We deeply regret this incident.
“Protecting and upholding the confidentiality of patient information is paramount to us, and we do not tolerate the violation of this trust.”
The spokesperson also said the hospital will continue to take proactive measures to safeguard patient data and educate its staff on the critical importance of data protection.
Shaffiq Alkhatib is The Straits Times’ court correspondent, covering mainly criminal cases heard at the State Courts.