NHS Highland reprimanded for HIV patient data breach

NHS Highland has apologised for a “serious” data breach, after 37 patients accessing HIV services were copied into an email - instead of blind copied – thereby showing their email addresses and identities.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued a reprimand to NHS Highland for the “serious breach of trust” after a data breach involving those likely to be accessing HIV services.

The ICO has called for serious improvements to data protection safeguards among HIV service providers, stating that there is “simply no excuse”, and that “the stakes are just too high” given the impact on people’s lives.

A formal reprimand has been issued to NHS Highland, which emailed 37 people likely to be accessing HIV services, inadvertently using CC (carbon copy) instead of BCC (blind carbon copy).

The error meant recipients of the email could see the personal email addresses of other people receiving the email, with one person confirming they recognised four other individuals, one of whom was a previous sexual partner.

“What we saw here with NHS Highland was a serious breach of trust and those accessing vital services failed,” said ICO deputy commissioner Stephen Bonner.

“The stakes are just too high. Research shows that people living with HIV have experienced stigma or discrimination due to their status, which means organisations dealing with this type of information should take the utmost care with their personal data.

“HIV service providers must set the highest standard for themselves and their service users. Every HIV service provider in the country should look at this case and see it as a crucial learning experience. We are calling on organisations to raise their data protection standards and put the appropriate measures in place to keep people safe.”

The ICO has applied its public sector approach to this case – instead of issuing a £35,000 fine, the regulator has issued a reprimand to NHS Highland in response to this breach. The ICO’s recommendations have been included in NHS Highland’s Information Governance Action Plan, and an update will provided to the ICO in June 2023.

According to ICO data, failure to use BCC correctly is consistently within the top 10 non-cyber breaches, with nearly a thousand reported since 2019.

An NHS Highland spokesman said: “NHS Highland is sorry this breach of confidentiality has happened. We acknowledge and accept the findings of the Information Commissioner and are doing all we can to prevent a repetition of this incident. We would take this opportunity to again apologise – unreservedly – to everyone who was affected by this incident.”