#ImInWorkJeremy: Jeremy Hunt accused of 'breaching patient confidentiality' after Tweeting a photo from a hospital visit

He also came under fire as the photo captured a board listing the patients on the ward in the background

The offending photo (patient details have been blurred out) appeared on Jeremy Hunt's Twitter feed (PA)

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt landed himself in hot water as he was accused of breaching patient confidentiality by tweeting a photo from a hospital visit.

Mr Hunt went online to defend his plans to impose new seven-day working contracts after NHS staff flooded Twitter with selfies of themselves in hospitals with the hashtag £ImInWorkJeremy.

He wrote a message on Twitter calling for a "modern contract" for doctors and swiftly afterwards posted a picture of himself with medics at UCLH hospital - although it later emerged the photo was taken on a visit yesterday, not during a weekend shift.

And he also came under fire as the photo captured a board listing the patients on the ward in the background.

The picture was soon edited to take out the information, but critics demanded Mr Hunt issue an apology for the apparent breach in patient confidentiality.

Dave Jones wrote on Twitter: "You've hastily edited the photo, now you need to apologise to the patients whose confidentiality you breached."

Lauren Nicole Jones wrote: "If I tweeted a photo with patient identifiable information to over 70,000 people I would deserve to lose my job as NHS worker."

The user FayetheGEP, who describes herself as a doctor on her Twitter profile, demanded to know "where's the apology?"

Press Association