Patient records left in Stafford Hospital car park
Confidential records of patients at Stafford Hospital have been found in the Accident and Emergency car park.
Confidential records of patients at Stafford Hospital have been found in the Accident and Emergency car park.
Bosses at Stafford Hospital have said such incidents are rare and confirmed any breaches of security would be taken seriously.
Brenda and Stephen Yeomans, bo th 46, were visiting Brenda's father on Wednesday evening when they saw a silver Mercedes pull away while still having papers on top of the car. As the car drove off, the papers blew off, but the driver failed to realise and did not stop.
Mrs Yeomans. from Chasetown, picked the documents up which listed consultations for 15 patients.
"It's personal patient records — very confidential information. I'm shocked," she said.
"All the names, addresses and national insurance numbers for 15 patients are on the papers. On some of the records it says one of the patients lives alone — not information you want to fall into the wrong hands.
"I went running around quickly trying to collect them all up. They were flying around everywhere. I ran in one direction and my husband in the other."
The confidential information had all sorts of details on, she added, including the location of in-patients at the hospital and medication they were taking. Some were also listed as 'urgent'.
"It details which ward the patient is on, why they have been admitted, and other details like that," Mrs Yeomans said."From the birth dates they are all obviously old people.
"I was really expecting him to stop but he just drove off. It was just a moment of disbelief."
Colin Ovington, director of nursing & midwifery at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, said: "Our primary concern is the safety and wellbeing of our patients and we will be contacting those affected as soon as we can. We offer our sincere apologies for this lapse, which will be thoroughly investigated and addressed appropriately."
Antony Sumara, chief executive of Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We are currently investigating this matter and are grateful to this member of the public for bringing it to our attention.
"Events of this nature are extremely rare in our trust, but when they do happen, we take them very seriously. If any breaches of our information security policy are confirmed, appropriate action will be taken."
Greg Jones, for the Information Commissioner's Office, said: "We will be making enquiries into the circumstances of the alleged breach of the Data Protection Act before deciding what action, if any, needs to be taken."
