Mark Hackett, the Chief Executive of Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust (SUHT), has made a formal commitment to improve data security after the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found SUHT in breach of the Data Protection Act. On 19 October 2009 a member of SUHT staff left an unencrypted laptop containing sensitive personal information in a…
Category: Health Data
UK: Hospital operation photos 'appear on Facebook'
A hospital worker has been suspended amid reports that photos of patients having operations were posted on the social networking site Facebook. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed it had launched an investigation after an incident at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. Patients were not thought to be identifiable in the images. Read more…
UK: Social work records found in second-hand filing cabinet
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has found Lancashire County Council in breach of the Data Protection Act after social work records containing sensitive personal data relating to several individuals were found in a filing cabinet purchased second-hand by a member of the public. The records were duplicates of documents held in the council’s offices and…
UK: Confidential hospital records found at Norwich supermarket
Sarah Hall reports: Hospital records containing highly confidential information about vulnerable patients have been found outside a city supermarket by a member of the public. Personal and clinical details of 11 elderly patients at the new rehabilitation unit at Norwich Community Hospital were on the ward handover sheets, which pass on key health needs of…
UK: Patient notes sent to wrong address
A farmer was left “horrified” when personal and intimate details of a potentially fatal pregnancy complication for another woman were dropped through her letterbox. Kay Ashton, 54, said she was “completely bewildered” as to how confidential patient notes from Derriford Hospital’s accident and emergency department, which were meant for a doctor, were sent to her…
German DPA Fines Drugstore Chain €137,500 for Illegal Collection of Health Data
On January 11, 2010, the data protection authority of the German federal state of Baden-Wurtemberg issued a press release stating that it had fined the Müller Group €137,500 for illegal retention of health-related data and failure to appoint a Data Protection Officer. In April 2009, the German press reported that the Müller Group, a drugstore…