Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
5,000 patient records stolen
Thursday 14th February 2008, 2:01PM GMT.
A laptop containing personal records of more than 5,000 out-patients has been stolen from a clinic at a Black Country hospital.
The theft, from Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, comes in the wake of several high-profile laptop thefts. Thousands of letters were this week being sent to patients warning them of the incident.
They are being told the computer contains their names, addresses, birth dates and medical details.
The computer was taken on January 8 from the anticoagulent clinic, which deals with people who suffer from blood-thinning problems.
Police were told at the time, but the 5,123 patients involved have not been informed until now.
Russells Hall today apologised and reassured patients that the database is password-protected.
But trust chief executive Paul Farenden admitted the laptop, a Fujitsu Siemens C Series Lifebook, had not yet been fitted with a new £135,000 data security system currently being implemented at Russells Hall.
He said: “Clearly this is a serious issue. We take precautions to try and protect all the IT equipment in our hospitals from theft but given this is a public building with thousands of people accessing it every day, there are inevitably practical difficulties around security.”
He said there was no evidence that patient information on the stolen laptop had been accessed.
One 55-year-old patient from Wombourne, who received her letter this week, said: “Whoever is now in possession of these details can open a bank account in my name and run up all kinds of debts.”
The letter to patients signed by three senior staff describes the theft as “very unfortunate”.
Last week it emerged a laptop containing the personal details of up to 14,000 convicted criminals was stolen from Birmingham Magistrates Court over Christmas.
Sponsored Links
Business Awards
Read the full story here
Full coverage of awards celebrating the region's best businesses.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
LIVE traffic updates
Road, rail and airport - latest
Our new, live traffic and travel updates service - check before you set out.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
IT IS GETTING BEYOND A JOKE,I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT EVERYONE WITH A LAPTOP HOLDING CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION ON PEOPLE WOULD BE VERY AWARE OF THE RECENT CASE OF LAPTOP THEFT.
Report abuse
The NHS is subject to strict policies & procedures to protect patient confidentiality, particularly with regards to IT, and has been for many years. This should never have happened if those policies & procedures had been properly applied and followed. Where is the resignation of the individual(s) responsible ?
Report abuse
Why should the owner of the laptop resign? Have you not read the story properly? The laptop was taken from WITHIN a hospital clinic – why should that person resign just because they were at their place of work doing their job? Its not like most recent cases where the careless individuals had left their laptops in their cars!!! Its costs thousands to get each laptop protected – money which will be NOT therefore be spent on patient care. Surely you’d rather NHS money go towards caring for patients and NOT be spent on a piece of IT security because of the criminal world we now live in! Well perhaps I am the only one who thinks that!! The morons who have stolen the laptop have probably only done so to clear its memory and resell it on ebay for a quick buck and have no interest in the data stored on it!!
Report abuse
It doesn’t actually cost ‘thousands’ to properly secure IT equipment and data.
But I do agree that the thieves probably have no interest in the data or even realise it’s potential value. To be honest if they’re from Dudley, they probably won’t even know how to switch the thing on.
Report abuse
Trust it to be robbed from Russells Hall that hospital just gets worse, and lol to Karls comment your probabuly right
Report abuse
when will it end someone got lazy
Report abuse
laptops by their very nature are portable – they should be secured and encrypted !No laptops with such data on should be used without encryption. I wonder if you feel the same if your personal & other details had gone missing !Also it may not be the user necessarily at fault – data security is a corporate responsibility !
Report abuse
THIS IS INEXCUSABLE WHEN I IN PARTICULAR HAVE A FAMILY MEMBER WHO HAS BEEN TREATED IN THAT HOSPITAL FOR THAT KIND OF COMPLAINT.LIKE THE TELEPHONE PROBLEMS ETC IT IS TIME RUSSELLS HALL GOT ITS ACT TOGETHER.SECURITY IS NOT THE PATIENTS’ PROBLEM.IT IS THE HOSPITAL’S. AND THE CROWDS IN THERE ARE LIKE WEMBLEY AT CUP FINAL DURING VISITING HOURS.
Report abuse
My worry is the breaches and losses being hushed up by big business… we my never know about all their mistakes.
Everywhere, there seems to be a cavalier approach to people’s personal information. Someone needs to take a grip of things!
Report abuse
The critics of Russells Hall Hospital should get a life. Staff there are doing a really good job saving lives. Relatives and patients who want a 1:1 service should get a life. Computers are part of the equipment used by hospital staff. If they were allowed to restrict who came to the hospital, maybe these thefts wouldn’t happen. For those who whinge about Russells Hall Hospital, I say GO SOMEWHERE ELSE and stop knocking the staff for doing a good job.
Report abuse
Never mind a poor old NHS fat cat might get a
slap on the wrist for this more leaks than a
20 year old hose pipe !!!!!
Report abuse
Confidentiality ??? Surley common sense dictates if patient details are kept on a laptop and the risk of laptops being stolen by an opportunistic thief is extremely high hence my question – why the hell use laptops for patient info / details surely a desktop is safer device for inputting and little harder for the thief to conceal on his way out of the hospital. !!!!!! Come on Russells Hall sort yourselves out!!!!
Report abuse
HAD ONE OF THE ELDERLY PATIENTS CONCERNED ON THE TELEPHONE.SHE IS ABSOLUTELY TERRORIZED.AND THIS IN SPITE OF THE LETTER.SHE IS ON THE POINT OF ASKING FOR POLICE PROTECTION ETC.OLD FOLKS ARE TERRIFIED OF COMPUTERS,INTERNET,ETC.
THE TELEVISION AND PAPERS ARE FULL OF IDENTITY THEFT STORIES.ITS IS DIFFICULT FOR THEM OVER MONEY WITHOUT WORRIES ABOUT ACCESS TO BANK AND HEALTH DETAILS.THE SAME PEOPLE ARE ALSO TERRORIZED BY THE WEMBLEY STYLE CROWDS MILLING AROUND AT RUSSELLS HALL WHEN THEY ARE ILL.
A SIMPLE LETTER OFF THE STAFF WON’T CALM THEM.ATTACKING THE LIE OF ”BIG IS BEAUTIFUL” WOULD GO A LONG WAY.MILES FROM THE HOUSE,SICK,INSECURE AND FRIGHTENED (ALSO ABOUT HYGIENE)…THIS IS THE DARK SIDE OF THIS HOSPITAL THAT WAS SHOWN OFF TO THE ROYAL VISITOR..
Report abuse
It’s not he fault of the fast majority of hard working staff at the Hospital,it’s the fault of the overpaid under braincelled managers, they are paid very well for there “intelligence” to look after this data.
There’s talk that the hospitals should be fined for losing personnel data. If they do this it’s only the tax payer who would foot the fine, why should the tax payer be made to pay for the loss of there own details?
“Heads” should roll, whoever is in charge of this personnel data should be fined and sacked.
Report abuse
FULLY AGREED WITH DUDLEY BLOKE.AND I COME FROM A FAMILY OF MEDICS.GIVEN THE SALARIES DISHED OUT TO THE MANAGEMENT……I COULD MENTION AT LEAST TWO COUNTRIES WHO HAVE RATHER MORE RADICAL REACTIONS NOW TO FAILURES OF THIS SORT.
Report abuse