NHS boss says patient records are safe

LONDON - Patients should have confidence in the new planned NHS database despite 168,000 records going missing, a health boss said on Monday.

David Nicholson, NHS chief executive, said people could trust the new multi-million pound centralised system containing patient records, saying everything was being done to make it secure.

He was reacting to news on the weekend that nine trusts had lost 168,000 patient records.

It was the latest embarrassing loss of personal data by official bodies, following the loss of the details of 25 million child benefit claimants in November and a week later, information on three million learner drivers.

"I think you can be assured that we take every effort that we can that these things do not happen," Nicholson told BBC radio.

He said procedures such as encryption, passwords, usernames and smart cards would be in place. "This is a very high level of security," he added.

Nicholson said public confidence in the system was essential because it was important that medical professionals have patient records at their fingertips during consultations.

Concern was raised after a CD with the names, date of birth and addresses of up to 160,000 people up to the age of 27 was lost by the City and Hackney trust in east London and records of 244 cancer patients had been misplaced by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Health Trust in Kent.

Other trusts involved in the loss of 168,000 records were the Bolton Royal Hospital, Sutton and Merton, Sefton, Mid-Essex, East and North Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Norwich, and Gloucester Partnership Foundation Trust, it was reported.

The loss emerged after checks across government departments were ordered in the wake of the child benefit scandal.

Information Commissioner Richard Thomas said concern about the safety of personal data had reached a tipping point.

"People have got to take personal information a great deal more seriously," he told BBC radio.

"We have actually in the last month or so, I think, got to a tipping point. People have suddenly woken up to the importance of data protection."

The commissioner described any massive loss of medical information from a centralised database as "catastrophic" because the information was so sensitive.

"Achieving trust and confidence and retaining it is absolutely critical," he said.

The Conservatives said the planned national database should not be abandoned because medical professionals need to be able to access patient information quickly.

But its health spokesman Andrew Lansley accused the government of arrogance and incompetence by ignoring the advice of independent experts.

"They need to look at the risks as well as the benefits," he said.