A joke by an oral hygiene trainee has cost him dearly. In 2018, the man in the dental practice in Uden got the local police officer in his chair. After the visit, he “jokingly” sent the policeman’s medical records to some friends who also know the policeman. With the text ‘that was a creep’. That joke now earns him a hefty sentence from the police judge.
In 2018, the man did an internship in a dental practice in Uden. When he was surprised to get the local police officer in his chair, he wanted to share it. He took a picture of the patient card and sent it with the text “that was a creep” in a group text message with five friends.
The local police officer in Uden knew nothing. Until years later he heard from colleagues that a photo of him had been found. It came from his patient card with medical data and his address. That photo was accidentally found on a phone seized in another police investigation. After some police detective work, they ended up with the ex-intern oral hygiene from Uden.
Although sharing the data had no unpleasant consequences for the Uden local police officer, he did report it. The former trainee had not kept his professional secrecy and that is punishable by law. According to the police judge, that offense was serious enough because as a patient you must be able to trust that your data will not be shared. The judge called the fact that the data of a local police officer are on the street ‘extra serious’ because of his profession.
Breach of professional secrecy
The former trainee has been working as a dental hygienist for several years now and plans to open his own practice. The judge finds it worrying that the man is still doing this work. He hopes that the suspect has learned from his prank that got out of hand and that he will never again violate his professional secrecy.
The former trainee offered through his lawyer to provide information to oral hygiene students about professional secrecy and the consequences. The judge called that a creative solution, but did not go along with it. The resident of Ude received 80 hours of community service for his ‘joke’. And as a stick behind the door also two weeks suspended prison sentence.