Prosecutor denied access to GP's notes on nurse accused of killing Covid patients

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) won’t get access to sensitive information about a former nurse at the Wilhelmina Hospital in Assen who is suspected of killing several patients in the Covid-19 pandemic. The OM wanted access to conversations that the suspect had with his GP’s practice assistant. But the court ruled that the OM did not need that information enough to break medical confidentiality, RTV Drenthe reports.

Theodoor V. from Veenhuizen is suspected of involvement in the deaths of several patients at the WZA’s lung department between March 2020 and May 2022. He allegedly told three care providers at the mental health service GGZ Drenthe about this. They informed the hospital, who called the police, resulting in V.’s arrest in April last year.

The OM suspects, based on statements from V. and his partner, that the nurse first told the practice assistant about killing the patients. The practice assistant later referred the man to GGZ Drenthe. The OM asked the practice assistant to release records of these conversations, but she refused, appealing to doctor-patient confidentiality.

The OM took the matter to court, saying it needed the conversations for the criminal investigation into the man. The content of those conversations cannot be obtained in any other way, the OM argued, stressing that these were exceptional circumstances.

But the court disagreed. According to the court, the OM currently has enough information to conduct an investigation. The three GGZ Drenthe care providers spoke to the police, providing sufficient information, the court said. There are no indications that the conversations with the practice assistant contain other, new, or additional information that is crucial enough to the investigation to violate medical confidentiality, the court ruled.

The ruling is another setback for the OM. The court previously ruled that GGZ Drenthe did not have to share the suspect’s medical file with the OM.

The criminal investigation into V. is still ongoing. The OM hopes to make a decision on prosecuting the nurse soon.