Hackney Gazette - Medical records of 7,000 patients stolen in GP break-in

UK COMPUTER HARD DRIVE STOLEN FROM DOCTOR Hackney Gazette - Medical records of 7,000 patients stolen in GP break-in:

Medical records of 7,000 patients stolen in GP break-in

hg.editorial@archant.co.uk
05 June 2009

By Alison Anderson

A COMPUTER databank with personal information of thousands of patients is missing after a break-in at a doctors’ surgery.

The hard drive and backup tapes containing names, details of illnesses, medical histories and referral letters of more than 7,000 patients in Hackney were taken in a break-in at Clapton’s Nightingale Practice.

The information stored on the hard drive was not encrypted and could potentially be accessed.

The tapes were locked in a safe kept in a locked cupboard in the manager’s locked office which had been broken into at the practice in Kenninghall Road.

UNSAFE

Patients learned of the incident in a letter from the surgery.

“I was assured the information was stored safely,” one patent told the Hackney Gazette. “But to me, it can’t have been very safe otherwise it wouldn’t have been stolen.”

Organisations which store personal information on computers must ensure there are safeguards to keep it secure, says the Information Commissioner’s Office, the watchdog responsible for the protection of personal information. Storing unencrypted data in a safe kept inside a locked office would probably be regarded as sufficient, they added.

TAPES REMOVED

NHS City and Hackney’s Tim Wilson said: “Since the burglary of the Nightingale Practice, we have removed unencrypted backup tapes from their secure storage and destroyed them.”

The trust has had encryption on a computer backup on all Hackney practices since January, he revealed.

A 19-year-old youth arrested in connection with the April 2 break-in has since appeared before Thames magistrates charged with burglary.