11 May 2009

NHSG/62/09

Patient data loss

The records of a number of babies born between 2001 and 2008 in Aberdeen Maternity Hospital were handed to the Health Board anonymously by a member of the public on Wednesday, April 29. 

An internal investigation was launched immediately.  It found that the documents had been disposed of confidentially at source, but appear to have been stolen during the disposal process.  The police have been notified.

The information contained details of mothers' names, date of caesarean section, the time of the decision to carry out the section, and time of birth.  The data was being used for an audit in the labour ward, designed to see if there were delays for mothers once a decision has been made to perform a section.

The circumstances of the loss are being fully investigated by NHS Grampian but it may be impossible to find out exactly what happened.  Nevertheless, any breach of security is taken very seriously and letters have been sent to all 175 parents alerting them to the theft and apologising for the breach.  The parents are mainly resident in the north east, but 13 are from Shetland, Orkney, Tayside. Ayrshire and Arran, and Lanarkshire.

Guidance has been issued to staff reinforcing existing data security policies.

Corporate Communications
NHS Grampian