The Aneurin Bevan Health Board has become the first NHS organisation to be fined for breaching the Data Protection Act.
The health board, which covers Caerphilly County Borough, has been issued with a £70,000 fine by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after a sensitive report – containing explicit details relating to a patient’s health – was sent to the wrong person.
The error occurred when a consultant emailed a letter to a secretary for formatting, but did not include enough information for the secretary to identify the correct patient. The doctor also misspelt the name of the patient at one point, which led to the report being sent to a former patient with a very similar name in March last year.
The ICO’s investigation found that neither member of staff had received data protection training and that the organisation didn’t have adequate checks in place to ensure that personal information was sent to the correct person. These poor practices were also used by other clinical and secretarial staff across the organisation.
Stephen Eckersley, the ICO’s Head of Enforcement said: “The health service holds some of the most sensitive information available. The damage and distress caused by the loss of a patient’s medical record is obvious, therefore it is vital that organisations across this sector make sure their data protection practices are adequate.
“Aneurin Bevan Health Board failed to have suitable checks in place to keep the sensitive information they handled secure. This case could have been extremely distressing to the individual and their family and may have been prevented if the information had been checked prior to it being sent.
“We are pleased that the Health Board has now committed to taking action to address the problems highlighted by our investigation; however organisations across the health service must stand up and take notice of this decision if they want to avoid future enforcement action from the ICO.”
The Aneurin Bevan Health Board has said it had approached the patient before contacting the information commission to apologise and alert the person to the mistake.