Hundreds of NHS data breaches registered
NHS Lanarkshire have apologised after it was revealed more than 400 data breaches were recorded by the health board in less than three months.
Hundreds of patients had their Covid-19 data breached in the region – a statistic Central Scotland Conservative MSP Graham Simpson called “worrying”.
There were 414 data breaches between March 12 and May 25, but the health board have moved to assure the public these occurred among NHS staff.
Gabe Docherty, director of public health and health policy, said: “We take incidents like this seriously and have written to offer our sincere apologies to those affected.
“The first incident relating to 20 patients was reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office who acknowledged human error.
“The second incident involving 388 patients was an internal staff email which was immediately recalled and deleted.
“We have updated our processes to avoid similar incidents from occurring in future.”
The information came to light after a freedom of information request by Graham Simpson MSP.
The Scottish Conservative asked how many data breaches there had been in the health board in relation to coronavirus test results or associated patient data.
On March 12, 20 patients’ data were compromised, with that figure rising to 388 patients on April 28.
Mr Simpson said: “It is quite worrying to see almost 400 patients were affected in one incident.
“NHS Lanarkshire should look into why these breaches happened so they can understand what went wrong and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“We don’t know the nature of the data breaches, we just have the figures so it would be useful to have an explanation from the health board.
“It is important that patients feel their information is secure, so I would like to hear from the board that measures are in place to ensure there is a tightening up of procedures.”