Marianne Dimain reports:
Ontario’s acting privacy commissioner is concerned after documents containing personal patient information were recently found scattered across a Toronto neighbourhood.
Dozens of papers with patient names, addresses, phone numbers and social insurance numbers were found near Leslie Street and Sheppard Avenue on Saturday, not far from North York General Hospital.
Hospital staff ruled out any connection to its patients, but information printed on some of the documents indicated they may have come from more than one doctor’s office in the GTA.
Read more on Global News. Their report only names one of the doctors whose patient information was found in the street, and it’s not clear at this time whether the third-party cleaning service involved is a common denominator or not.
Ontario’s privacy commissioner appropriately reminds everyone that the practice is ultimately responsible:
“It is the health professional who is ultimately responsible for how these records are disposed of,” said Beamish. “That’s why it’s critical that there’s an understanding with a third party provider like a cleaning company in terms of how the records will be securely destroyed.”