3,000 patient record dumped in landfill

10:05pm Tuesday 12th February 2008

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THE personal records of more than 3,000 patients have been dumped at a landfill site - causing fresh embarrassment for Bolton's health chiefs.

Details of 3,200 people were thrown away with ordinary rubbish rather than being shredded or burned in line with procedure.

Many of those affected suffer from debilitating conditions including heart disease and blood clots.

It is the third data-loss scandal to involve the health service in Bolton this year.

Every person has been written to by Primary Care Trust (PCT) bosses who have apologised for the blunder.

Tim Evans, chief executive of Bolton Primary Care Trust, said: "We are sincerely sorry for this lapse in our usual strict procedures for ensuring that all patient information is stored and disposed of securely.

"I apologise on behalf of the PCT for any concern we have caused for those patients who have received letters, but we felt it was right to let them know what had happened."

The records of extremely ill people, who had received home visits from on-call GPs as part of the out-of-hours service, were among those dumped.

Almost 3,000 of the records belonged to people being treated by the anti-coagulant team; for example those with blood clots, thrombosis or those who need to have their blood thinned because of heart conditions.

Records for out-of-hours patients contained their name, address and the reason the doctor had been called to their home.

Anti-coagulant patient details also included their name and address, along with appointment times and in some cases, their treatment.

The records were being stored at Waters Meeting Health Centre, which opened in August last year, and has managed the borough's out-of-hours care since December.

Despite being put in a confidential waste' container, the medical records, which were collected between December and mid January, were sent for compacting and landfill disposal rather than being shredded or burned.

The problem was only spotted in mid January when a manager at the health centre realised the system for correctly disposing of confidential waste had not yet been set up, but that patient details were still being disposed of.

PCT chiefs then doubled-checked all the missing data and have now written to all patients or next of kin of those affected.

In the letter they have included details of a helpline that has been set up to deal with patients' concerns.

Each of the PCT's 1,736 staff has been issued with a warning urging them to take extra precautions when it comes to disposing of patient records.

It is the third blunder involving medical records of people in Bolton in just four months.

In October a computer containing the personal details of 200 gynaecology cancer patients was stolen from an office in the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Thieves struck again at the hospital in December when a computer which had the details of 350 chest patients was stolen.

Mr Evans believes the latest theft highlights the need to introduce safe, electronic storage systems.

He said: "At a time when the security of electronic personal data is under the spotlight, we have been sharply reminded of the fact that paper records need to be handled with equal care.

"It also shows, for me, that the safest place to hold confidential information is on a computer systems that's well managed and security protected, with information not stored on memory sticks, stand-alone hard drives or laptops but on networks with security controlled access."

Fraud experts have warned the details obtained could easily be used by criminals to obtain credit in someone else's name.

James Jones, consumer education manager at Experian, the UK's biggest credit reference agency, said: "This is certainly a risk. With this information fraudsters have the building blocks they need. They could contact people directly, pretending they were from the hospital or even a bank and trick people into revealing even more information so they could apply for credit in their name.

"I would advise anyone affected by this to be extra vigilant when it comes to their credit cards and bank accounts or to look at their credit report as this is where any identity theft would be highlighted."