A WOMAN has hit out at Musgrove Park Hospital after photos of her recovering foot were used in a training seminar without her consent.

Natalie Burnap, 44, from Bridgwater, had an operation to remove a toe earlier this year at the Taunton hospital.

After her 11-days in hospital, Miss Burnap went home, until she was sent to Burnham-on-Sea Hospital to Skype with MPH to check on her recovery.

After her webcam call, she met with a friend for a coffee, when she discovered that the news of her toe removal was more widely known than she thought.

When she questioned her friend about how she knew of her recent medical procedure, it was discovered that photos of Miss Burnap had been used during a training seminar for nurses that took place in Exeter.

“You put your trust into the NHS when you are at your most vulnerable, and they breach your privacy,” she said.

“I am really annoyed this has happened and I feel the apology I received was empty and shallow.

“It should never have happened in the first place.

“It would be nice if I could make sure that no one else has to suffer this embarrassment.”

Miss Burnap feels that better measures need to be put in place to ensure that a patient’s privacy is upheld.

The hospital told Miss Burnap in an apology letter that an investigation into how this breach happened took place after it was discovered what happened.

The letter went on to say that written consent is normally asked for before a photo of a patient is used, and that it was incorrectly assumed that Miss Burnap’s consent was given.

Hayley Peters, Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust’s director of patient care, said: “We want to apologise unreservedly to Miss Burnap for the breach of confidentiality that occurred when she was cared for by the trust.

“We have met Miss Burnap to discuss the incident and would ask her to get back in contact with us if she would like to discuss it further.

“We take issues of patient confidentiality very seriously and have made a number of changes to the way we record and store consent forms as a result of this incident to ensure it does not happen again.”