Patients' treatment details stolen from Whipps Cross Hospital
3:11pm Friday 3rd February 2012 in Where I Live By Joe Curtis
Sarah Askell, with the letter she received from Whipps Cross Hospital
PATIENTS’ personal details were stolen from a hospital after being left in a doctor’s bag.
Notes written during visits by 100 patients since April 2011, which included test results and treatments as well as names and addresses, were taken from an office and have not been recovered.
Victim Sarah Askell, of Gordon Road in Wanstead, received a letter from the hospital to say her confidential details could be in the public domain.
The 24-year-old, who visited the hospital on December 21 and 28, said: “I was absolutely shocked.
“I can’t believe someone out there knows the details of why I went to hospital.”
“Why is this information not stored in a filing cabinet or on a computer?
“Now someone out there has information about my consultation which is really personal.
“I don’t understand why it was stored in a bag in a room, it just seems strange.
“What about patients who could have cancer? This is another burden for them on top of the worries they have already.”
In his letter to Miss Askell, hospital chief executive Cathy Geddes wrote: “We recognise that any loss of this kind is unacceptable.
“We are currently carrying out a detailed investigation, following which we will decide on the measures we need to take to avoid such an incident happening again.
“I apologise unreservedly for this loss of your personal information.
“The doctor concerned raised the issue immediately following the theft of the bag and we took immediate steps to identify the information contained in the bag and the patients affected.”
Confidential patient records of Whipps cross patients were discovered on the side of a road in Hertfordshire in 2008. No-one was found to have been at fault for the security breach.
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Sam Hain says...
12:17pm Sun 5 Feb 12