Michael Powell reports:
Private medical information about tens of thousands of NHS patients has been leaked in a shocking data breach, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The confidential files include hospital appointment letters for women who have suffered miscarriages, test results of cervical screening and letters to parents of children needing urgent surgery at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Liverpool.
Thousands of letters were leaked in error by PSL Print Management, a Preston-based consultancy firm paid millions each year by the NHS.
Read more at Daily Mail.
The breach appears to have occurred when a former PSL employee/whistleblower requested all their records. When they received the response, it appeared to erroneously contain communication files with patient letter attachments between PSL and its subcontractor, Datagraphic.
One of the issues that should be investigated by the Information Commissioner’s Office is why PSL had retained files from 2015 when the data protection laws require the deletion of medical files when data is no longer needed. Did what was described by the whistleblower as thousands of files with patient information really need to be currently retained by PSL? And will the ICO also investigate its subcontractor, Datagraphic, to see if they retained the files they received, too?
And then, of course, we ask: how did the NHS monitor its contractor and subcontractor for compliance with data protection laws?
Clearly, somebody goofed when they sent the former employee/requestor more than just the emails and messages related to their employment. But that goof exposed what sounds like a serious data protection failure that merits its own investigation.