Ambos in leak damage control

ONGOING improvements are being made to Ambulance Tasmania systems following a data breach scandal resulting in the personal information of thousands of people being posted online.

The information leak was uncovered last month and included sensitive details such as the name, age, gender, address and even HIV status of every patient attended to by an ambulance since November.

The information was intercepted from the fire and ambulance paging systems. The site was still being updated on January 8 but was voluntarily pulled down the next day after Tasmania Police made contact with its administrator.

An Ambulance Tasmania spokesman said as a result of the unauthorised action, the organisation has moved immediately to minimise the risk of patient data being misused.

“Changes have been made to the way Ambulance Tasmania’s staff input and manage patient information to ensure additional triage and protection of data and that only essential information is transmitted,” he said.

“Ambulance Tasmania is also part of an emergency services steering committee examining options to further protect data through technology solutions. This is a complex and technologically challenging issue … and this work will take some time.”

A public notice in the Mercury on Saturday said Ambulance Tasmania regretted publication of the data and encouraged those with concerns to get in touch or seek further information on the Department of Health website.

“Maintaining the privacy and confidentiality of our patients is of paramount importance to Ambulance Tasmania and we regret the unauthorised publication of data …” it said.

“Tasmanians can be assured that only information essential for the safety and treatment of our patients and staff is transmitted on the pager system.”

The spokesman said any patient with concerns was urged to email: enquiries@ambulance.tas.gov.au.

The ambulance service did not answer questions about whether all patients impacted had been notified or whether charges had been laid.