The Law
This is a very serious breach of the Data Protection Act. The confidential status of hundreds of patients has been inadvertently leaked.
Most of the clients we act for prefer to keep their status confidential, so to have this leaked to other people has caused serious distress to those affected. In our view, this is a clear breach of the Data Protection Act and we are extremely confident we will be able to obtain settlements for the clients we act for.
We would like to make sure that people are aware that the focus here is a systemic failure by the NHS to protect the identities of the patients affected, and we don't blame the individual who sent the email. In today's digital age we have access to technology and software that prevents this sort of thing from happening.
Unfortunately, this was not utilised - and given the nature of the email and the recipients on the list, the need for using such software was of paramount importance. The NHS, as the Data Controller, has the overall responsibility for protecting people's information, and on this occasion they grossly fell short of their important duties.
Our primary mission here is to ensure that the victims are fairly compensated for what they have been going through as a result of this very serious breach. The distress this has caused some people is indescribable.
The importance for the NHS to adhere to the Data Protection Act is huge, and we sincerely hope that our action also helps to ensure that such misuse of very private and personal information never happens again.
