Records lost at Vincent’s Hospital

[Christine Fulgham <christine () opensecurityfoundation org>]

http://www.sbpost.ie/news/ireland/records-lost-at-vincents-hospital-52600.html

A computer back-up containing patient records has gone missing from St
Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin.

Notices have been posted at the hospital asking if anyone has seen the
Western Digital external hard drive.

A spokesman for St Vincent’s said that on October 21, the hospital informed
the Data Protection Office of the data protection breach relating to the
loss of an external storage device.

But he said that the loss of the device would not have any impact on patient
care.

‘‘It contained archived copies of the files of a small subset of patients
with laryngeal disorders who attended the ear, nose and throat department
between 2002 and 2008," said the spokesman. ‘‘The original patient records
are still preserved.

The hospital will be contacting all of the laryngeal patients whose details
were on the storage device."

He said that, in line with the code of practice, the incident was being
fully investigated by the hospital and a report would be produced for the
Data Protection Office.

‘‘That office will be advised of the circumstances of the loss and all
future actions that will be taken.

This will include measures to prevent a repeat of such a regrettable
incident involving external data storage devices, that are not normally used
within the hospital," said the hospital spokesman.

A spokesman for the Data Protection Commissioner said it had received
notification from St Vincent’s ‘‘of a potential breach of personal data
security.

. .We are investigating the matter.

Until our investigations are complete, we cannot comment further," he said.

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