by a member of the public who contacted the Trust to report it. IGI/4106 Ballater Surgery 20-Aug-15 4000 The surgery’s bi-annual newsletter is emailed to all patients email addresses we hold. This has been done on many occasions in the past, using bcc and is considered a routine procedure, so therefore no special measures were in place. Patients can also subscribe to the newsletter via our website which they then receive securely. The email addresses were downloaded from EMIS to Excel to be made ready (semi-colon to be inserted between names) for a mass email to be sent. There were 4159 email addresses on file. Due to the volume this was split into 4 separate emails. The email addresses were copied and pasted into the ‘to’ box and not the bcc box, for each of the 4 emails sent. On the fourth occasion the person sending the email realised what they had done and alerted the Practice Manager. At the same time the recipients of the first email starting calling and emailing back to alert us to the error we had made. The PM contacted the MDU for advice, who advised to send another email (this time bcc) explaining we had made a data Patient email addresses revealed to 4000 patients
breach and to apologise. Unfortunately in this email we didn’t state what the data breach was, which caused us to send further individual emails to patients who requested further information. The practice then entered the incident on the HSCIC G Toolkit Incident Reporting Tool the same day. Approximately 150 emails were returned undelivered as we had recorded the incorrect email address. IGI/4148 NHS Bedfordshire CCG 14-Sep-15 1 Declaration of Interest form contained details about a member of staff's mental health/counselling. The form was given to a P.A who uploaded the details onto the CCG's public facing website. A review was undertaken of the entries and this particular entry was found and taken down. Member of personal confidential information e.g. “receiving counselling/therapy services from South Essex Partnership Trust, Mind BLMK and Step-by-Step” IGI/4098 SOUTHERN HEALTH NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 03-Sep-15 1 It has been reported by an in-patient that a hospital cleaner recognised him and has told her husband about the patient's admission to hospital and the husband has disclosed this information with other close members of their community. As a result the patient has alleged he has received a number of text messages enquiring about his mental health from within his local community. The cleaner is an employee who is Patient name and name of admitting hospital
have instead been folded with the first patient of each batch having their address in the window of the envelope. This means that 2 patients have received a copy of their letter which was meant to go to their GP, and each patient has also received other letters for other patients which were meant to go to their GP that on that day as part of the batch. Both patients who were in receipt of the letters have: • Patient 1 – Called CHS immediately. The letters (Batch = 18 letters) were personally collected that day from the patient’s home. These have since been refolded and reissued to the correct GP practice – Received. • Patient 2 – Called and attended the GP practice who was supposed to have received the letters in the first instance. This GP practice contacted CHS to highlight that they had received the letters from the patient (Batch = 4 letters) – Received. IGI/4053 BIRMINGHAM AND SOLIHULL MENTAL HEALTH NHS 23-Sep-15 1 Letter posted to incorrect address containing sensitive data Assessment letter containing sensitive personal data regarding a child
Advice' form and attached it to the diary on MAC for the date that the patient was due to return for their appointment. Patient B attended MAC and during her visit advised she had another patient's documents in her notes. From the initial 24 hour review, it appears these documents were accidentally placed in patient B’s notes. Photocopy of Irregular Discharge Against Medical Advice form, containing Name, Address, and signature. All 3 documents relate to the patient A. IGI/4110 OF ENGLAND NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 28-Sep-15 60-70 Handover and other documents found at Royal Wolverhampton Hospital. Documents found by staff, it is thought that they had been taken in by a doctor to shred. Handover sheets for approx. 60-70 patients. IGI/3990 HINCHINGBROOKE HEALTH CARE NHS TRUST 10-Aug-15 20 Patient handover sheets by a member of staff in a car park predominantly used by staff. A Consultant found the 2 sheets of paper folded together in the car park on his way into work. He handed the sheets to his secretary who in turn handed them to the Ops team involved to raise an incident. There are approximately 20 patients detailed on the sheets although it looks like more, the one sheet is an update of the other and contains some duplicate information. The name, Hospital No and DOB are listed and some basic information about the presenting illness, and treatment plan, the rest of the information is clinical and not easily deciphered by the untrained eye.
HOSPITAL NHS TRUST prompt a start in treatment was faxed to the wrong number and was received by a factory. The sensitive information (a result of a 'genital swab) has been disclosed to an unauthorised recipient. report e.g. name, address, DOB and the clinical results of a sensitive nature. IGI/3786 Bromley Healthcare CIC 25-Sep-15 600 C&RHS are cloaked due to the sensitive nature of the service. The service went over to EMIS and remains cloaked in its own organisation. Previously, the service used progress notes that were cloaked on Rio before going over to SRHAD templates on Rio. A staff member received an enquiry about access to records and noticed CRHS progress notes have been transferred over to the main EMIS system not cloaked service. Because the ‘not cloaked functionality’ hasn’t been transferred across it means that staff working on the main system can view these notes. Patient progress notes from C&RHS IGI/3778 ST ANN'S HOSPICE (CHEADLE) 30-Jul-15 1 A copy of a patient's clinic letter was sent in error to a hospital consultant and another patient in error. Both patients were seen on the same day in the outpatient department. A secretary overtyped on the first patient’s letter template to create the second patient’s clinic letter. Our patients are able to opt to receive a personal copy of their clinic letter. The cc list was not updated with Details of clinical diagnosis and treatment of a patient with demographic data of name address and date of birth. No other sensitive data as defined by Data Protection Act
IGI/3775 NHS Northern, Eastern and Western CCG 20-Aug-15 1 Two documents containing sensitive information were attached to an e-mail intended for an internal member of staff that was sent in error to a non NHS recipient by a member of the Patient Advice and Complaints Team. The documents contained the following sensitive information: Name of patient’s mother; Full address detail; MP details; Age of patient and condition; and Commissioning response to MP enquiry. The documents contained the following sensitive information: Name of patient’s mother; Full address detail; MP details; Age of patient and condition; and Commissioning response to MP enquiry. IGI/3787 PENNINE ACUTE HOSPITALS NHS TRUST 29-Sep-15 1 Theatres sent incorrect discharge summary information to the Paediatric ward. An incorrect discharge letter was provided to a parents. NHS patient data - Discharge Summary information. IGI/3750 The Retreat-York 24-Jul-15 1 A confidential patient assessment report for a potential user of our clinical services was sent via Mail to an unintended recipient. This was a result of human error as a member of administrative staff typed an incorrect house number onto the report template despite the address records that were held being correct. The risk is that the report may be opened by the unintended recipient and details divulged to a 3rd party in that same street. The report contained patient information with sections categorised as Reason for Referral to our services, Family and Background History, Current Eating Pattern, Physical Health Conditions and Physical Functioning, Medication, Exercise and Activity, Body Image, Current Weight and Weight History, Educational and Occupational History,
Other Presenting Problems, Risk, Alcohol and Substance Use, Previous Therapy, Motivation to Change and Goals and Recommendations. IGI/3744 DUDLEY AND WALSALL MENTAL HEALTH PARTNERSHIP NHS TRUST 16-Sep-15 2 Member of the Early Intervention team following the organisation’s agile working protocol, finished work on a Friday and returned home with the medical notes for what they believed to be 3 patients. The hand written notes pertaining to a complaint investigation and the dictation of these notes were held on tape within his locked briefcase. Upon arriving home the Consultant took his briefcase out of the boot of his car and transported it into the house. The case and his car keys were left in the same location. At some point during that night/early morning of the following day his house was broken into and his car keys and briefcase were stolen. The perpetrators then escaped in the stolen car. It is also noted that the team member’s prescription pad containing circa 25 blank prescriptions and a log sheet containing the names of 5 patients were also inside the case. Mental health medical notes - confidential personal/sensitive data Hand written notes from an complaint interview - complaint details containing no personal data Hand written prescription log sheet - personal data name only Transcription tape containing complaint details - complaint details containing no personal data IGI/3751 HEART OF ENGLAND NHS 30-Sep-15 1-10 Unauthorised access to patient records. As part of an ongoing investigation a report was provided by IT which showed Patient information
IGI/3641 THE WALTON CENTRE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 01-Jul-15 1 DoLS application was sent to the Safeguarding Committee instead of the Local safeguarding Walton email address. All recipients were safeguarding leads. Details of a patients Mental State and capability. Personal sensitive data on the form. IGI/3637 EPSOM AND ST HELIER UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS TRUST 12-Aug-15 700 A camera containing limited details on 700 patients (Image, name, DOB and hospital number) was stolen from ophthalmology at Sutton Hospital. External windows were smashed and removed to gain access to the camera system. Other kit that did not contain any PCD was also stolen. The incident has been reported to the police. An internal investigation will be completed. Images of retinas and eyes, name, DOB, Hospital Number IGI/3817 NHS Yorkshire and Humber Commissioning Support Unit 11-Sep-15 4 A bag containing an encrypted laptop and paper documentation was stolen from a member of staff's car after being left overnight prior to the member of staff going on holiday. The bag and paper work was recovered some time later by a member of the public and handed in to the police. It was subsequently retrieved by YHCS. The initial incident report filed locally, omitted details of any documentation being stolen. On recovery the bag was discovered to be holding documentation relating to patients as well as user credentials for Personal Health Budget Assessments and patient records for three patients Direct payment information for a further patient A diary containing patient names and initials, postcodes and house numbers Login credentials for other NHS networks
with me. When I came to finalise the LAC health assessment to send on, I couldn't locate the records. I have checked all the children whose visits were on the same day. I and several other staff have checked child health on iPM, phoned LAC team, looked through CPS records, checked through all HV trays, drawers, through all filing cabinets, checked with M (location redacted from this SIRI submission) HV team and these records cannot be located.” This child is a LAC child and is going to be adopted. IGI/3794 OF ENGLAND NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 29-Jul-15 1 A letter to a member of staff regarding a HR issue was sent to a member of the public who is a complainant in an unrelated matter. The complainant informed the Trust of the incident. Personal data IGI/3599 Barts Health NHS Trust 04-Aug-15 15 15 sets of postnatal notes had been returned from a community midwifes clinic back to the hospital post room. The envelope mistakenly ended up in the outbound post and Royal Mail delivered the 15 sets of postnatal notes to a patient’s home address. The husband of a patient contacted NUH Maternity Unit informing them that they had received a parcel containing 15 postnatal notes which included that of his wife. NHS patient data (hard copy postnatal case IGI/3557 LANCASHIRE CARE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 27-Jul-15 7 7 different service user letters were incorrectly enclosed with a letter to a different service user. The recipient took the incorrect letters into GP practice who has then forwarded them back to the service. The information included on the clinic letters is: gap, name, dob, address, NHS
GAS Goal, Physio input, press notes, equipment and discharge summary. IGI/3460 HCA 13-Jul-15 50-100 A member of the public informed the hospital that when searching for information about a consultant, they clicked on a Google link and were able to access information relating to some HCA In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) patients that had been sent to a Dictation Centre in India for typing. Lister Hospital IVF (part of HCA International) regularly sends dictation tapes to India to get the data transcribed. Dictation tapes have both demographic and clinically sensitive information regarding current treatment and planned treatment of the patients. One of our IVF patients contacted Lister hospital regarding information about IVF patients being publicly available through google.co.uk. Lister Fertility clinic subsequently contacted the transcription company about this incident. The company admitted that the information was breached and that they will carry out further investigations including contacting Google to take the pages down. HCA IT further contacted the company and asked them to do a series of steps to minimise the risk of more people viewing patient information that was breached. Personal Information at risk Both demographic and clinically sensitive information regarding current treatment and planned treatment of IVF patients
IGI/3458 St Andrew's Healthcare (Original code of NTY85) 13-Jul-15 5 A member of staff sent confidential information to an external email address relating to 4 patients and another member of staff. Documents were not password protected. Email contained a number of documents included CPA reports, tribunal documents and witness statements. Affected individuals have been informed of the breach. Currently being investigation by HR and the Healthcare investigation team. Confidential and patient data personally identifiable IGI/3470 Barts Health NHS Trust 07-Aug-15 1 Two patients were admitted with the same surname but different first names. During the discharge process, a staff nurse discharged one of the patients with the wrong discharge summary and wrong medications to take home. The staff nurse realised the error after the patient had left the ward. The discharge summary would contain name, DOB, address and detailed clinical information. The discharge summary contained name, DOB, address and detailed clinical information. IGI/3593 General Healthcare Group 31-Jul-15 25,355 Certain information was sent in error to two commissioning support units and a group of CCGs that handle their own commissioning support functions. The information sent in error included the following: patient NHS numbers and, in relation to each of those numbers, provider name, activity type, HRG, HRG description, date of admission, discharge date, length of stay, date of attendance, treatment function code, and GP practice code. As part of General Healthcare Group's annual round of NHS Standard Contract negotiations, it is required to provide line level detail on all patient activity worksheet containing the following: NHS number Provider Name ODS Code Region Contract Name Commissioner Code Referrer Code GP Practice Code
completed by GHG in months 1-8 of the NHS financial year. GHG’s London-area commissioners requested this data in line with the standard process used to agree an indicative activity plan for the upcoming NHS financial year. A member of GHG’s contract negotiating team received from GHG’s informatics team (via GHG’s internal email system) a data file that included NHS numbers. The contracting team member manipulated the base working file to exclude all NHS numbers from the data sheet; however, he took no action in respect of the front cover pivot table (i.e. the ‘drop down box’ function of the Excel worksheet). The file was then sent as an attachment to an email addressed to North East London CSU (NEL), North West London (NWL) (a group of CCGs that handle their own commissioning support functions), and South East CSU. NEL and NWL deleted the email without forwarding it to any other entities. South East CSU forwarded the email to six CCGs, including Croydon CCG, which on 1 April 2015 alerted GHG to the fact that NHS numbers were included in the file via the pivot table. 25,355 unique rows of data were included in that file (each such row included an NHS number); the file held 40,001 lines of data in total. Referral date POD POD Description Activity Type HRG HRG Description Tariff without MFF Tariff With MFF PBR Treatment Specialty Code Treatment Specialty Description Date of ADMISSION Discharge Date No. of Excess Bed Days Length of Stay Date of attendance Treatment Function Code Chargeable Month Concat Concat 2 Previous Ortho Code Appointment type PBT Flag Forecasted Tariff
an extended holiday and was moving the notes and other valuables from a room in the hospital to a place where it was believed the notes would be safe. During the train journey the suitcase was stolen and a crime number has been provided. The information was a copy of the full health care records. IGI/3399 COLCHESTER HOSPITAL UNIVERSITY NHS FOUNDATION 05-Aug-15 2 pages Discharge summary - part of which contains another patient details .Patient discharged and handed his discharge summary. When at home he noticed that part of the discharge summary had details of another patient. He immediately contacted the hospital to inform us of the error. He has also gone to the local press. Patients demographics and diagnosis IGI/3379 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION 07-Aug-15 1 Patient letter sent to the wrong address, member of public reported incident letter mistakenly sent to GP on patient with a copy to the patient. Member of the public phoned to say this was not about their child. Letter dictated from thyroid clinic, no hospital number dictated. The wrong patient was selected from the system Clinical letter IGI/3419 ROYAL UNITED HOSPITAL BATH NHS TRUST 01-Jul-15 4 Information was left on a home phone of the patient’s parent regarding a missed Out patient appointment and a number left to call to rearrange. Our PAS system is directly connected to the National Spine where the patient’s contact details were retrieved from. The patient’s mother called the RUH Children’s Therapy Department to complain that her son’s details had been given to the father Incorrect next of kin, guardian information and contact details stored on the National Spine.
total of 17 patient’s names were included. IGI/3162 CALDERDALE AND HUDDERSFIELD NHS FOUNDATION 23-Sep-15 1 An email was written with attachments relating to the dismissal and appeal outcome of an employee in the Trust. The email was then sent inadvertently to an incorrect recipient. The email was attempted to have been recalled and 2 further emails were sent requesting the recipient got in touch and deleted the email. - Nothing heard back as yet. The attachments were not password protected. The dismissal outcome and appeal outcome letters of an employee IGI/3173 SOUTHPORT AND ORMSKIRK HOSPITAL NHS TRUST 14-Jul-15 42 Agency Risk Assessment Conference (MARAC) meeting actions were received by email as an attachment (not password protected) to the Named Nurse Child Protection at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust from the MARAC coordinator, based at Sefton Council. The email was forwarded in error by the Named Nurse Child Protection to a distribution list of 65 individuals. Of these, 63 were internal, one external who had received the information initially and one external Yahoo account belonging to a Doctor in training. The MARAC actions contain the details of 21 victims and 21 perpetrators with actions for various agencies, including Social Services, Probation service, Police and support agencies. 21 victims including name, address and date of birth. 21 perpetrators including name, address and date of birth. Details of the case are not clearly listed but for each case the actions of each / any agency are listed.
checked as well as the originating department and the letters have not been found. It is likely that the package is somewhere within Trust premises and will not be accessed by an unauthorised Third Party. IGI/3527 ROYAL UNITED HOSPITAL BATH NHS TRUST 22-Jul-15 1 Consultant letter for patient incorrectly written and containing information which does not relate to the patient. Patient told her GP when she received a copy. Alerted the oncology secretaries and the cancer manager and reassured the patient that this would be highlighted. NHS Patient Data IGI/3317 St George's University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 19-Aug-15 2 Correspondence sent to patient’s GP without patient’s consent. Patient data IGI/2721 HEART OF ENGLAND NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 28-Sep-15 59 An error in the Pathology post room led to Microbiology & Chemistry reports, which should have been sent internally, being sent to a Residential Treatment Centre in error. The majority of reports were for HIV viral load results. The error was immediately spotted by a doctor at the residential treatment centre and the reports were returned to the Trust. Demographic details and lab results IGI/2701 LEEDS AND YORK PARTNERSHIP NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 08-Jul-15 1 Letter sent to address - council offices instead of paediatrician. York CAMHS service. Council staff informed service. Letter re-sent. Reporting to ICO complete - still awaiting ICO decision. Patient-related correspondence.
IGI/2694 LEEDS AND YORK PARTNERSHIP NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 08-Jul-15 1 Letter sent to wrong address, opened by 3rd party. Includes detailed mental health assessment letter. Address incorrectly recorded by care co-ordinator. Administrator who sent letter did not check against records on local electronic record system. Letter returned to Trust PO Box address but had been opened. Both members of staff have subsequently left the service. Reporting to ICO complete - still awaiting ICO decision. Mental health assessment letter and patient identifiers IGI/2463 KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 14-Aug-15 NOT KNOWN Members of staff returned to discover the workstation computer missing from the office. Computer was password protected, unfortunately member of staff cannot offer full assurance that there was no PID on the machine as local storage as an option is still available. Unable to quantify than to provide the statement that the Unit provide surgical procedures to our patients and so if this data was held it has been deemed likely that some clinically indicative data would be present. IGI/2152 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 07-Aug-15 1 Call from patient who is an outpatient. Patient received a package from Addenbrookes via courier. The package contains patient information. The package was addressed to the patient but is for someone else. Package returned to the Trust - contents contained copy of medical records that Set of medical records
informed of incident. Research nurse accessed patient records using Drs log in to the screening programme system to access data that was needed for research purposes. Access to information was legitimate but breach of policy by using other members of staff password. accessed application using another member of staff password IGI/507 ORMOND STREET HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 02-Jul-15 1 patient and 4 other family members A letter needed to be urgently sent to a family. On the family’s request their address had been marked as secure on the patient information system meaning that it was hidden from the majority of staff. Because the staff member sending the letter couldn't access the address from the patient information system they found an address for the family in another department's records. However this was an old address. • Letter contains a summary of the care of patient, including a sensitive diagnosis. • Letter contains information that is sensitive and highly confidential. • Letter makes reference to sensitive health of patient’s parents although does not name them directly IGI/2851 MID ESSEX HOSPITAL SERVICES NHS TRUST 13-Aug-15 661 The has been notified by the ex-wife of a member of staff, (who is currently suspended for reasons unconnected with this incident), that a significant amount of personal data in the form of pdf clinic lists is on a home computer and potentially on other devices. The material appears to have been regularly emailed from the Trust to the Name, hospital number and name of operation
member of staff's Gmail account on many occasions during 2012 to 2014 for reasons yet to be established. IGI/2429 KING'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL NHS FOUNDATION TRUST 14-Aug-15 2015 A piece of work was commissioned to deliver an open source integration engine known as Servicemix for our EPR system. Servicemix is effectively a piece of middleware that provides flexibility for various clinical applications at the Trust to communicate, share and present data with and from each other. As part of the development and testing procedures, KCH worked with some commercial partners on the delivery and so agreed to share test data via a password protected repository in the cloud (internet storage). In the last few days it has become apparent that an error in the testing procedure has resulted in 2015 unique patient details in HL7 format, being committed and uploaded to the repository. The Breakdown of these numbers is as follows: 361 basic demographic ADT’s containing name, address, ethnicity, DOB and Next of Kin demographics. All other results and records appear to hold clinical indications including very sensitive data such as sexual health indications on top of the demographic information. In the last few days it has become apparent that an error in the testing procedure for has resulted in 2015 unique patient details in HL7 format, being committed and uploaded to the repository. The Breakdown of these numbers is as follows: • 361 basic demographic ADT’s containing name, address, ethnicity, DOB and Next of Kin demographics. • All other results and records appear to hold clinical indications including very