FORMER mental health patients in Gloucestershire have been assured that personal details relating to their condition will not fall into the wrong hands, following the revelation earlier this week that data had been lost by the Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
The trust in one of nine NHS trusts across the country to admit losing patients' information in the latest of a series of incidents involving data lost by public bodies.
It emerged on Christmas Eve that details of 8,466 mental health patients in Gloucestershire had been stored on a lost computer memory stick.
However, the trust assured residents that the data, which relates to mental health in the county over a period of 40 years, did not contain information on any patient's treatment and could only be accessed by someone with the correct code.
Shaun Clee, chief executive of Gloucestershire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said: "On November 23 the senior team was notified that a memory stick could not be located.
"The information relates to closed cases where health service treatment has been concluded and was used solely by administrative staff to track the location of archived files.
"There is no risk of unauthorised access to the archived files. The information relating to 8,466 people does not include any clinical information.
"An immediate investigation has identified that this incident occurred due to a breach of policy. Lessons have been learned from this incident and appropriate actions have been taken."
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article