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Oh no...(more on security): UK lost 25,000,000 records!

June 24, 2011

The confidential medical records of hundreds of thousands of patients have gone missing from nine NHS trusts, the Government has admitted.

Hospitals around the country owned up to security breaches as part of the investigation into data protection in all areas of public life triggered by the loss of 25 million child benefit records by HM Revenue and Customs.

Looks like the blame has been placed on a missing computer disc. The Conservatives said the serious breach of patient confidentiality called into question Government plans for a national database containing the records of every NHS user in the country.

Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: "This is further evidence of the Government’s failure to protect the personal information which we provide. "For over two years we have argued for data to be held locally, with networking, rather than on one central database. The Government should accept that this would offer us greater protection."

Anyway you look at this mess it is a serious blow to the NHS and to patient confidence in the promised security of their personal health information. There can be little doubt that this experience will cast a shadow on what we do here in the United States.

Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.

Ayn Rand (1905 - 1982), The Fountainhead (1943)