Hundreds of patient records stolen
PERSONAL details of 1,800 patients have been lost after two computers were stolen from East Yorkshire hospitals.
A laptop was taken from a locked cupboard at Castle Hill Hospital, Cottingham, containing details of urology patients and a PC which held details of cancer patients was taken from Hull Royal Infirmary.
Dr David Hepburn, Medical Director for Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospitals, said: "We have already written to everyone affected by this to apologise to them for any distress caused and to inform them of these incidents."
*For the full story, see tomorrow's Mail.
*Are you one of the 1,800 people who have received a letter? If so contact the Mail on (01482) 315149.
12 Comments
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by Bob, Hull
Friday, November 14 2008, 9:48PM
“Andy the information is of much use to those who commit identity theft, fraud, and marketing.
There is absolutely no respect for other people's personal data these days.
I also fully agree this sort of information should not be stored on a laptop but access to a central server using terminal services or summat so people cannot download any of it onto their hard drive.”
by andy, new york
Friday, November 14 2008, 8:40PM
“Get real. The information contained has no value to anyone so its going to have no impact. Who is interested in someone else's patient records. There are far more important things to worry about than this trivia”
by Jo, Hull
Friday, November 14 2008, 11:37AM
“Its common practice by most large organisations to store data on a shared drive not a personal one thats only accessible by the user/creator...surely they have some form of security ensuring only relevant people have access to sensitive data? they need to look at their policies regarding document managing! and the person responsible for hoarding data needs to be reprimanded...severely!!”
by Michael, Hull
Friday, November 14 2008, 9:43AM
“In these large organisations no data should be stored on hard drives, it should all be on network drives. Then if the PC/laptop is stolen, no data is lost. Also, hard disks don't last for ever. You can switch on a computer one day to find that it's failed - data possibly lost. It staggers me that sensitive data is stored on local machines, it's just asking for trouble.”
by Harry, west
Friday, November 14 2008, 9:14AM
“PJM - laptops are 10 a penny these days and those stolen will be covered by insurance. The information held on them is far more valuable.”