Probe into claims Southport victims' NHS records accessed

Probe into claims Southport victims' NHS records accessedImage source, PA MediaImage caption, The victims were all injured at a children's dance class in Southport's Hart Street in July 2024ByDaniel Wittenberg and Judith Moritz, Special correspondent and Angela Ferguson, North WestPublished14 July 2026, 18:20 BSTUpdated 6 minutes agoAn NHS ambulance trust is investigating accusations that staff inappropriately accessed the records of victims of the Southport attack.The father of one of the young girls seriously injured in the July 2024 attack said he was "appalled" at the possibility and accused staff at North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) of wanting to "satisfy their own morbid curiosity".It comes after it emerged in May that dozens of workers at Aintree Hospital, where some of the injured were treated, had looked at the records with no good reason.NWAS chief executive Salman Desai said: "We have identified concerns about potential inappropriate access to patient records and are formally investigating the matter."Three young girls - Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King, and Elsie Dot Stancombe - were murdered in the attack, while 10 others were physically injured.The father of a girl who was 13 when she was injured but survived the attack said: "It is a complete breach of trust in our darkest hours as a family and dampens how you feel about the amazing work they do to save lives. "It was already incredibly difficult to think that staff at Aintree hospital had needlessly pried into our daughter's condition."The man cannot be identified due to an anonymity order protecting his daughter, who had been helping to supervise the dance class before she was stabbed in the back and arm.Solicitors acting for the girl and for another 21 of the 23 girls who survived the attack are calling for a full-scale review by NHS England into the guidance and disciplinary procedures for staff who inappropriately access patient d...