According to a Freedom of Information Act request, between July 2008 and July 2011 there were at least 806 separate incidents where patient medical records were compromised.

Research conducted by privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch revealed 23 incidents of patient information being posted on social networking sites and 91 incidents of NHS staff looking up details of colleagues, while 24 NHS Trusts saw confidential information stolen, lost or left behind by staff. 44 NHS trusts failed to respond to the Freedom of Information request and 55 Trusts refused to release all or some if the information requested.

Despite these breaches of Data Protection policy, just 102 cases resulted in dismissal of staff.

The report comes days after the Commons Justice Select Committee argued courts should have the power to punish people breaching the Data Protection Act with prison sentences, saying fines are an "inadequate" deterrent.

Speaking at the 10th annual data protection compliance conference in London, Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said data breaches in the NHS continue to be "a major problem". Of the 47 undertakings the ICO has agreed with organisations that have breached the Data Protection Act since April, over 40 percent (19) were in the healthcare sector.

The research follows on from an earlier Big Brother Watch report ‘Broken Records’, which highlighted how more than 100,000 non-medical personnel working in NHS acute trusts in Britain have access to confidential medical records.

For more information
www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk