Primarolo admits ignorance over data losses by nine NHS trusts
Patrick Wintour writes in The Guardian:
Ministers faced embarrassment over more mislaid data yesterday when they were forced to admit that they did not have details on what information had been lost by nine NHS trusts.
The loss of data potentially covering tens of thousands of patients’ records has been disclosed to the Department of Health by the trusts and to the information commissioner.
Ministers will be worried that the loss will further undermine confidence in the department’s plans for a new computer database of all NHS patients’ records.
The health minister, Dawn Primarolo, assured patients that nothing sensitive had been lost, but seemed to concede at the same time that she did not know what details had been mislaid, or the form in which they had gone missing.
