Via dailymail.co.uk -
Computers containing patients' details have been stolen from a disused hospital site, health officials have said.
About 30 new computers were taken from a storeroom at the now-closed Lymington Infirmary in Lymington, Hants, earlier this month.
A Hampshire Primary Care Trust spokeswoman said the equipment did not have complete patient records on them but could contains details of names and addresses of those who had visited the site.
The infirmary has been replaced by a new £36 million hospital in the town.
The PCT spokeswoman explained: "Following the theft our technical experts have been reviewing what was stored on, and moved from, each computer's hard drive.
"There were no complete medical records on the stolen machines. Our policy is that no information about individuals should be stored on the hard drives of computers. In order to ensure this was the case we had asked staff to remove any information from hard drives in September 2006 and given them written guidance about how to do this. This exercise was then repeated in December 2006.
"The computers in question were due to have their hard drives checked by IT staff in January. Unfortunately, they were stolen before this could be done. We therefore we cannot guarantee that all data was removed completely from every hard drive or that no information about individuals was contained on them.
"The extent and nature of any data that may have been on the stolen machines is still being investigated. A decision about whether any patients need to be informed about possible breaches of their privacy will be taken once the investigation has been completed.
"Security at the Lymington Infirmary site has also been stepped up."
A Hampshire Police spokesman said officers were investigating the theft of the computers, which were worth £15,000.
No comments:
Post a Comment