We’re all becoming wearily-familiar with how often private information about us is being lost by government departments.
The latest to become public (how many more of them are there that we don’t hear about?), concerns the Isle of Wight.
The data of 38,650 NHS patients going back as far as 1996 have been lost on their way between London and Sandown Health Centre on the Island.
Don’t laugh here, but the reason it was being sent was … to check the backup, in case the data was LOST!
While 38,650 people sounds like a huge number out of the 130 – 140,000 people who live on the Island, we’re told by the Primary Care Trust that it includes “large numbers of patients who registered on a temporary basis whilst visiting or working on the Island and patients who have since transferred to practices elsewhere.”
One saving grace is that the data is held on tape, and as anyone who has ever had to use tape-based backup system will know, retrieving information from them is hardly ever easy, and the PCT says the data is protected by a password.
As the lost tape is a backup, all of the data is still available on the computer systems at Sandown.
Dr Peter Randall, Senior Partner at the Sandown Health Centre was confident enough to say, “My own view is also that the risk of any harm resulting is minimal. My own family are registered as patients at this practice which means their details are amongst those on the tape. I have no worries about the information falling into the wrong hands and being used improperly.”
Image: AdamsPupil
