NHS in 7 new data blunders

[security curmudgeon <jericho () attrition org>]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article730304.ece

NHS in 7 new data blunders
By EMMA MORTON
Health and Science Editor
Published: 26 Jan 2008

THE NHS has owned up to seven new breaches of security involving patient 
details, The Sun can reveal.

In one incident, the confidential records of more than 1.7 million 
patients were lost.

In another, a doctor's name was used in a Google search - which came up 
with a link that accessed details of the people he treated.

Computer hard drives were also "accidentally" dumped in a SKIP outside a 
hospital. A dossier outlining the breaches will be presented to Health 
Minister Ben Bradshaw by Department of Health officials next week.

Last night patient groups branded it a "scandal". And they warned the 
intimate information - including treatments for sexual and mental health 
problems and HIV status - could fall into criminal hands and be used for 
blackmail.

Those affected have never been told that their details were out in the 
open.

The incidents will bring further shame to the Government still reeling 
from similar blunders last year.

The details of 25 million child benefit claimants and three million 
learner drivers were also lost.

The records of 1.7 million patients from the North East Essex region . 
along with the addresses of every GP in the county - were on a tape that 
was mislaid by a courier firm.

[..]

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