Nine NHS trusts in England have admitted losing patient records in a fresh case of wholesale data loss by government services, it has emerged. Hundreds of thousands of adults and children are thought to be affected by the breaches, which emerged as part of a government-wide data security review. The Department of Health says patients have been told and there is no evidence data has fallen into the wrong hands. It follows losses of millions of child benefit claimant and driver details.

'Scandal'

The DoH said the security breaches were being dealt with locally and it did not have details of how many patients were affected. It said investigations were under way and action would be taken against anyone who had failed to fulfil their responsibilities under data protection laws. Joyce Robins from the patient support group, Patient Care, says ministers cannot gloss over what she describes as yet another "scandal". She said: "Every week we hear of a new one. Health records can have anything from your ex-directory phone number to your HIV status. "I think it's the tip of the iceberg, actually, because there's such carelessness within the NHS and it's always impossible to hold anyone to account and find out who's actually done anything."

Archive records

The Sunday Mirror reports that one of the breaches was thought to involve the loss of names and addresses of 160,000 children by City and Hackney Primary Care Trust after a disc failed to arrive at an east London hospital. The details of what data has been lost by the other trusts have not been disclosed. The other trusts involved are Bolton Royal Hospital, Sutton and Merton PCT, Sefton Merseyside PCT, Mid-Essex Care Trust, Norfolk and Norwich and Gloucester Partnership Foundation Trust. Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has reported two breaches meaning that 10 cases have occurred in total. The East and North Hertfordshire Trust reported a loss but has since found its missing data. One set of data, that reported lost by Gloucester Partnership Foundation Trust, consisted of archive records relating to patients treated 40 years ago - none of whom is still alive.

Other incidents

NHS chief executive David Nicholson recently wrote to NHS managers reminding them of their responsibilities with regard to data handling. A DoH spokesperson said: "Since the recent heightened concern about data protection a small number of trusts (nine) have reported breaches of their own security rules. "There are strict guidelines and procedures for dealing with such breaches." Police are still searching for two computer discs containing the names, addresses, dates of birth and bank account details of every child benefit claimant after it emerged they had been lost in the post by HM Revenue and Customs in November. Then on Monday it was revealed the details of three million learner drivers had also been lost after being sent to Iowa in America's mid-west.

---