LA medical centre staff sacked for Spears snooping

Bosses at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles have fired a dozen employees for snooping in Britney Spears' records.

Hospital officials have suspended another six people after discovering as many as 20 staff members had attempted to defy medical centre rules and obtain confidential information about Spears, a recent patient.

The pop star was hospitalised in the facility's psychiatric ward at the beginning of last month.

Those disciplined include physicians, according to the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

The security breaches also prompted hospital officials to reveal they had also disciplined and sacked staff for looking at Spears' confidential records following the birth to her first son, Sean Preston, in 2005.




UCLA officials reveal they sent a memo to all staff when Spears was admitted to hospital, warning employees that snooping through a celebrity patient's records would be considered a violation of federal patient privacy law the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

The email read: "Please remember that any unauthorized access by a workforce member will be subject to disciplinary action, which could include termination."

The hospital officials confirm those disciplined include both medical and non-medical employees, but no doctors were targeted for firing.