150,000 NHS patients affected by data breach

A coding error has been blamed for a data breach which affected 150,000 patients, who had requested that their confidential health information only be used in relation to care provision.

However, it appears that a problem with software being used by GPs led to them being unable to object to the information being used for auditing and research purposes.

Junior health minister Jackie Doyle-Price said in a statement to Parliament “There is not, and has never been, any risk to patient care as a result of this error.”

She went on to say that the recent introduction of a nationwide opt-out programme, a service that allows patients to restrict the use of their health information without the involvement of their GP, would prevent a failure such as this from occurring again.

A spokesperson from The Information Commissioner’s Office said “We are aware of an incident involving NHS Digital and are making enquiries.”

NHS Digital has said it would write to all patients who were involved in the breach as well as their GPs and TPP, the software’s designer, has said it “apologises unreservedly” for the fault.

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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