UK NEWS
NOW NHS LOSES PATIENT DETAILS IN NEW FIASCO
LANSLEY: 'Further evidence of the Government's failure to protect personal information'
By Gabriel Milland Political Correspondent
HUNDREDS of thousands of adults and children have had their personal health records lost by the Government in a new data debacle.
Nine NHS trusts yesterday owned up to the shocking loss of intimate personal information.
The lapses were only made public following a Govern-ment probe after the loss of Child Benefit details of 25 million claimants.
The trusts reported 10 separate incidents of data loss to the Department of Health since the HM Revenue & Customs row last month.
The DoH said it did not have details of how many patients were affected in each case as the breaches were being dealt with locally.
But in one blunder the names and addresses of 160,000 children have been lost by City and Hackney Primary Care Trust, after a disc failed to arrive at St Leonard’s Hospital in east London.
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust – where 90 patients died in Britain’s biggest C. diff superbug outbreak – has reported two breaches.
The DoH said last night that patients involved have been told – and insisted there was no evidence data has fallen into the wrong hands.
Since the child benefit discs went missing in the post it has also emerged that three million motorists’ details had vanished.
Shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley said: “This is further evidence of the Government’s failure to protect the personal information which we provide. Following the HMRC and DVLA failures we will need further steps on the part of the DoH to show how their planned electronic patients’ database will protect our medical records.
“We have argued for data to be held locally, with networking rather than on one central database. The Government should accept this would offer us greater protection.”
Joyce Robins, from watchdog Patient Care, said the losses were a “scandal”.
She said: “Every week we hear of a new one. Health records can have anything, from your ex-directory phone number to your HIV status.
“I think it’s the tip of the iceberg because there’s such carelessness within the NHS.” The BMA said the loss risked destroying trust between doctors and patients. Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of its GPs’ committee, suggested the Government wasn’t serious enough about data security.
The development was especially worrying, given the Government’s plans for a centralised NHS computer network of every patient’s records. Dr Vautrey added: “It’s vitally important that any development of centralised systems is done in a careful and measured way.”
Campaigners NO2ID, who oppose ID cards and moves to centralise all NHS records, said: “If you care about your privacy then keep your medical records between you and your doctor, and out of the hands of the DoH, if you can.”
NOW NHS LOSES PATIENT DETAILS IN NEW FIASCO
24.12.07, 9:24am
The sooner we get rid of Gordon Brown and the Incompetence Party, the sooner we will get an administration who will be able to resolve all these issues.
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