Due to human error, hundreds of patients identity suffered with HIV accidentally revealed.
HIV patients who attended services at 56 Dean Street clinic in London felt shock after names and other personal information leaked, Tuesday. It was said to be a human error, that sent names were revealed instead of hiding details including email addresses of the patients. It is part of the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.
Incident caught the attention of many, as to confidential files of HIV patients must be kept privately. After sexual health clinic accidentally publishes HIV status and personal information of hundreds of patients attended HIV services, internal investigation then been launched. Lead clinician at Dean street clinic, Dr. Alan McOwan described leak as completely unacceptable and that staff who sent email is devastated.
Dr. Alan McOwan said, “Hands up. We really screwed up here and we need to get it right,” Chelsea and Westminster Hospital trust’s director for sexual health. The clinic then immediately sent apology after sending the email and promised to investigate how the breach had occurred, Wednesday.
“We can confirm that due to an administrative error, a newsletter about services at 56 Dean Street was sent to an email group rather than individual recipients. “We have immediately contacted all the email recipients to inform them of the error and apologise.”it was not accurate to say all the patients on the list were HIV positive, said spokesperson.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt stated, “This is particularly frustrating when lessons could have been learned from similar breaches to improve employee education on data protection and best practice when handling sensitive information”. Newsletter was intended for HIV patients using sexual health services with details of treatments an supports, a very confidential file however been revealed. HIV patients worried that they might be judge on their condition. IMAGE/Google