The safe and effective management of orthopaedic patients out of hours requires the communication of radiographs between junior residents and their non-resident seniors. Despite stringent guidelines issued by the Caldecott Guardian on the transmission of patient sensitive data, there is no data describing actual exchanges in the literature. The objective was t describe current trends in the transmission of patient sensitive data between resident Orthopaedic juniors and their non-resident seniors out of hours.

The method was a Questionnaire survey polling Orthopaedic registrars in North London. Seventy-six (76) trainees participated in the survey. Fifty Three (53) trainees received radiographs for review off site. Forty-eight (48) reported receiving patient radiographs for review to their personal email account. 48% of these trainees reported that the images contained patient sensitive information. 40% of the trainees who received images to their personal email had a NHS mail account which was not used.

Remote access to patient radiographs improves patient management out of hours. Although there is some awareness of Caldecott guidelines for the handling of patient sensitive electronic data, compliance is extremely poor. We recommend that all trainees who routinely handle patient sensitive data remotely acquire a free NHS mail account for receiving patient radiographs