DRM Legal News and Commentary
Senior clinician at Liverpool Hospital loses two boxes containing patient data
It has been reported that MG, a physiotherapist working at Liverpool Women’s Hospital lost two boxes of patient records, which he removed from the Hospital premises to conduct his own clinical trial. The physio has now been suspended for running the trial without proper authorisation. MG used Hospital consent forms to obtain patient approval to use their data in his clinical trial and moved the sensitive records to a private practice. He used NHS follow up appointments to take readings [...]
New Forest District Council reports data breach
Back in April of this year New Forest District Council reported a data breach which occurred in 2018, when a member of the public submitted a request to the local authority through the website www.whatdotheyknow.com. The website helps people with their Freedom of Information Act requests and then publishes the results online. The FOI request was for all Council Housing properties, including properties bought under the Right to Buy Scheme. This scheme allows some tenants to buy their council home [...]
We all love the NHS
But they really have to up their game when it comes to protecting our data A report last month in the Guardian confirmed that “NHS Digital is revising its process for booking Covid vaccinations in England after the discovery of a ‘seriously shocking failure’ that leaked medical data from the site. The website lets users make appointments using their NHS number or, if they do not have it to hand, some basic identity information. But in the process, users’ vaccination status is disclosed, allowing [...]
“Snooping” into patients’ records – a punishable offence under data protection legislation
It is no secret that the healthcare sector experiences the highest number of data breaches annually. And the sector has become even more attractive to cyber criminals (and even more prone to human errors) given that, in recent months, health organisations have had to focus on the Coronavirus pandemic. The NHS and all related health bodies hold and process a wide range of our personal information. Besides the contact detail of their patients and employees, these bodies hold extremely sensitive [...]
Data breaches by schools and universities
Data breaches by schools and universities have been on the rise in the previous 12 months, demonstrating a continuing failure by the educational sector to come to terms with the data protection obligations imposed by the May 2018 General Data Protection Regulation (now the UK GDPR). Universities are prime targets. In May of 2020, cyber criminals manages to steal confidential data of students past and present including: phone numbers, donation history and event attendance. The ransomware attack targeted the cloud [...]
Data breaches by the NHS
Information relating to our health is often of an extremely personal and confidential nature and is classified as special category data under data protection law. This means (generally speaking) that it cannot be disclosed without the consent of the patient. Yet data breaches by the NHS and healthcare organisations remain the most common data breach incidents reported to the ICO (read more here ).And there is no evidence that this will change any time soon. While the NHS is quickly [...]
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