John Corlett reports:
More than one week after a major security breach, Queensland Health still does not know how a number of sensitive medical documents were left lying in the gutter.
Rockhampton Hospital began an investigation into the security breach early last week after The Morning Bulletin carried a story revealing that sensitive medical documents were left in a public street for more than an hour and a half.
Last Friday, eight days after the breach, CEO of Queensland Health Central Queensland Rod Boddice was still tight-lipped on the issue.
[…]
The paperwork did not contain patient files, however, it is alleged the unsecured documents contained sensitive information including a list of names and contacts for the mothers of children who were identified as at risk of neglect.
Read more on The Morning Bulletin.
I hadn’t been aware of this incident until now, but you can find the paper’s previous coverage here and here.
What’s particularly troubling about this breach is the response of the hospital when notified of it – it seems they didn’t do a thorough job of going around and collecting the documents that were in the street. According to the original reporting on the incident:
The resident said they had only retrieved some of the papers and many still remained clearly visible lying in the public street. They said despite the obvious sensitive nature of some of the documents the hospital security officer was indifferent to the seriousness of the security breach.
The resident claimed the officer told them it wasn’t his job to retrieve the documents and if they wanted to collect them then they should pick them up.
Say what?