No delay in treatment, DHB says

The Canterbury West Coast District Health Board (DHB) says no patients’ treatment was affected by a staff member ‘‘misplacing’’ documents containing their private medical information.

It has also explained the documents, some of which were found in Hornby, were copies made as part of an employment investigation into the staff member. The ‘‘potential privacy breach’’ came to light when a member of the public found medical documents in Hornby on February 11.

The DHB found they came from 40 pages of West Coast patients’ medical information, which the staff member ‘‘misplaced’’, it said. The papers contained 300 people’s names and health numbers, and at least 15 patients’ information. Some are still missing.

DHB chief people officer Michael Frampton said the docu- ments were copied as part of an employment investigation. ‘‘The inclusion of patient-identifiable information was an error and we have unreservedly apologised to the individuals affected.’’

The misplaced information included extracts from electronic patient files, he said. ‘‘No original information has been misplaced.’’

Lawyer Jonathan Forsey, who specialises in privacy law, said if the DHB gave the documents to the employee as part of disclosure, it would not always be necessary to redact people’s private details. The individual was obliged to keep that private information secure.

Forsey said hard copies were at risk of being inadvertently distributed, such as situations where files were put on top of a car then someone has driven away.

While the DHB would likely have a good defence for giving copies to the employee, it ‘‘wasn’t flash’’ to have people’s medical information blowing around a suburb, Forsey said.

The DHB says it is investigating the potential privacy breach.