UK: Dozens of Newcastle patients’ medical records go missing after van blunder
Keiran Southern reports:
Confidential medical records belonging to dozens of North East patients have gone missing from Tyneside hospitals.
The documents were taken after being left unsecured in a van outside a property in Fenham, Newcastle.
Thieves stole the vehicle holding 143 private medical records of patients at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Freeman Hospital and Campus for Ageing and Vitality, formerly Newcastle General Hospital.
Following the blunder, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust cancelled its contract with the courier firm responsible for transporting records between the city’s hospitals.
Read more on Chronicle Live. If you read the full story, it seems that this was a breach that was only a matter of time, because this was not the first time medical records had been left unsecured in the van used to transport them:
A whistleblower told how records were allegedly sometimes stored in unsealed boxes and left unprotected in vans overnight.
Has one comment to “UK: Dozens of Newcastle patients’ medical records go missing after van blunder”
Jordana Ari - March 27, 2016
Maybe it is time to go back to the early 1900’s where all patient medical records were done on paper and locked securely in filing cabinets, which I still think is the most efficient way to secure patient files.