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Confidential hospital records lost by NHS trust
A SHAMED health worker from West Yorkshire has resigned after losing a computer memory stick thought to contain confidential records on thousands of patients.
The data, which would include patients' names, addresses, dates of birth, hospital numbers and details of their medical treatment, is thought to have been stored on a USB memory stick.
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has written to all patients who might be affected and has launched a full investigation.
The female administration worker breached policy by taking the device off Trust premises and lost it in the library at Leeds Metropolitan University on April 21.
It was reported missing to hospital bosses the next day and both the trust and the university have tried but failed to locate the device.
Letters were sent out to 2,650 surgical patients whose details could have been on the USB stick. And the trust has contacted some 3,000 other patients who featured in waiting list data which could also have been stored on it.
One angry patient affected, who did not want to be named, received a letter on Tuesday.
"You read about this kind of loss time and time again and it is frustrating," he said.
"This is one of the reasons I contacted my GP several weeks ago and told him I am not prepared to go on a national patient database. The letter from the Trust says the memory stick may contain my name, address, date of birth, hospital and national insurance number. If it falls in to the wrong hands it could be used for fraud."
Another upset pensioner, who did not want to be named, said: "I panicked at first, and then I just felt disgusted.
"I got straight on to my bank to tell them and I've taken out an insurance policy against someone using this information to steal my identity, so it's already costing me money."
Red-faced Foundation Trust chief executive Miles Scott apologised for the blunder and has moved to reassure patients that there is no evidence data on the memory stick has used.
"On behalf of the Foundation Trust, I would like to apologise to all those patients involved for the anxiety and inconvenience that has been caused.
"This is the first time such an incident has occurred within our hospitals and we are taking this matter extremely seriously.
"It is essential that we safeguard patient confidentiality and I am very sorry that our established procedures were not followed in this incident.
"An investigation has already been launched into the exact circumstances. We are determined to do whatever we can to prevent this from happening again."
Bradford MPs Gerry Sutcliffe and Terry Rooney have both condemned the loss and called for an inquiry.
Mr Rooney added: "Why does an administrative member of staff need to have a memory stick with thousands of patients details on?"
The Foundation Trust has written to all staff reiterating its strict policy on home working and data handling, and their responsibilities under data protection laws.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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