{
  "id": 16792998,
  "title": "NT Health backtracks on claim only five patients impacted by privacy breach",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/27/nt-health-backtracks-on-claim-only-five-patients-impacted-by-privacy",
  "topic": "health",
  "section": "Health & Medicine",
  "published": "2026-10-27T20:37:49.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "ABC News AU",
    "slug": "abc-news-au",
    "url": "https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-28/nt-health-backtracks-rdh-privacy-breach-5-or-12-patients/107315472"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Northern Territory health department has retracted its claim that only five patients were affected by a privacy breach at Royal Darwin Hospital. Initially, NT Health announced it had contacted all five affected patients, but the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) identified around a dozen individuals who were exposed. After being questioned by the ABC, four affected patients confirmed they had not been notified by NT Health. The breach involved pregnant women's confidential medical information being posted to Instagram by a medical observer with 28,000 followers. The observer, Neda Mogharehabed, had access to patient names, ID numbers, and medical conditions during her visit to RDH from October 12 to 14. After receiving pressure from the media and affected patients, NT Health admitted that they had identified an additional seven patients on October 15, bringing the total number of affected individuals to 12. The health department is now reaching out to these patients to explain the incident, apologize, and provide support.",
  "summary": "NT Health admits 12 pregnant patients were impacted by a RDH privacy breach in which medical information was posted to Instagram, after initially saying it only identified five.",
  "key_points": [
    "NT Health initially claimed only five patients were affected by privacy breach.",
    "ABC identified around a dozen individuals exposed in the breach.",
    "NT Health later confirmed 12 patients impacted after media and patient pressure."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}