Helsinki nurse accessed personal information of 170 residents without justification

The City of Helsinki has reported an incident involving a psychiatric services nurse who accessed the basic information of city residents without justification. The employee is no longer with the city.

The matter was uncovered during internal oversight within Helsinki’s social, health, and rescue services in the spring. The nurse logged into the Apotti patient information system at the end of 2021 and accessed data on approximately 170 residents. However, the employee did not access any health records; instead, they viewed an “Identity report,” which is the initial screen displaying basic client information within the Apotti system.

From this report, the nurse was able to see the names, personal identification numbers, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers of the 170 residents.

In response to the data breach, the City of Helsinki has filed a report with the Data Protection Ombudsman’s office and has notified the affected individuals about the incident.