Canterbury District Health Board Data Breach (2007)

A former CDHB patient lodged civil proceedings with the High Court in Christchurch on July 23, seeking a combined $110,000 in damages from the doctor and CDHB. The doctor, Valerie Pollard, twice accessed the woman's mental health records in 2007 ahead of a Family Court dispute involving the woman's partner and Pollard's girlfriend. When Pollard inadvertently learned the woman had been admitted to Hillmorton Hospital, she disclosed the information to a mutual friend and again at a Family Court hearing. Pollard was censured and fined in 2010 by the New Zealand Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal after admitting professional misconduct. She resigned from the CDHB in 2009.