Hundreds of files missing

A health board employee is under investigation after ‘‘misplacing’’ hundreds of patients’ medical information – some of which are still missing.

The Canterbury and West Coast District Health Board only became aware of what it calls a ‘‘potential privacy breach’’ when a member of the public found some of the documents in the Christchurch suburb of Hornby on February 11.

The documents contained 300 people’s names and health numbers, and at least 15 patients’ private health information such as clinical notes. One affected patient said she was told her medical notes had ‘‘blown away in a gust of wind’’.

The DHB says it has investigated the matter and it is connected to a ‘‘serious employment issue’’.

It said a staff member ‘‘misplaced’’ 40 pages of documents relating to West Coast patients, only six of which have been found. The DHB hopes the missing documents have been ‘‘picked up by someone and destroyed’’.

The DHB appears to have kept the breach under wraps, issuing a statement to media only after an affected patient – who is still to learn if her treatment for cervical cancer was delayed because of the privacy breach – contacted Stuff this week.

Greymouth woman Sue Moore had been waiting for the results of an urgent scan. She said she was extremely frustrated and angry with the DHB for misplacing her files. She said a DHB staffer told her on the phone her clinical notes had ‘‘blown away in a gust of wind’’.

She wanted the DHB to be held accountable and to put steps in place so patient records were kept secure and handled correctly.

‘‘It’s bloody disgusting. Why were the files taken to Christchurch? They are not telling us the full story and I want to know why. Where were they found? I just want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody else,’’ she said.

Canterbury and West Coast

‘‘We are treating this as a potential privacy breach . . . ’’ David Meates Canterbury and West Coast DHB chief executive

DHB chief executive David Meates said in a statement the issue was of ‘‘significant concern’’.

‘‘We have apologised to everyone whose information was in the bundle of ‘misplaced’ documents. We are treating this as a potential privacy breach as we don’t know whether anyone has seen their clinical information, and unfortunately we don’t know where the missing documents are.’’

The DHB had alerted the office of the Privacy Commissioner of the ‘‘potential privacy breach’’, he said.

‘‘Last week we met with 15 people who had some private health information included in the documents misplaced by a West Coast DHB staff member. In addition we wrote to 300 people whose name and National Health Index [NHI] number were included in some of the documents.

‘‘It’s now more than two weeks since we were alerted to some of the documents being found in Hornby. As time passes it seems more likely that these misplaced documents have been picked up by someone and destroyed,’’ Meates said.

The DHB would not say when the documents first went missing, nor why it was not noticed until the member of public found some documents on February 11.

Moore said she was told in a phone call with a medical director at Grey Base Hospital that someone had taken the files to