Case Studies

Watchdog fines GP for data breach

by Mark Rowe

A GP practice that revealed confidential details about a woman and her family to her estranged ex-partner has been fined £40,000 by the Information Commissioner. Regal Chambers, in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, gave out the information despite express warnings from the woman that staff should take particular care to protect her details. The information was provided after the ex-partner made a request for the medical records of the former couple’s son. Staff at the GP practice responded with 62 pages of information that included the woman’s contact details as well as those of her parents and an older child the man was not related to.

The data protection regulator the ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) found that the GP practice had insufficient systems in place to guard against releasing unauthorised personal data to people who were not entitled to see it. This was a breach of the Data Protection Act.

Steve Eckersley, the ICO’s Head of Enforcement, said: “Most people would be horrified to think the information they entrust to their GP was being treated with anything less than the utmost care. In this case a patient reinforced this, however her pleas went unheeded.

“When that information could have devastating consequences if released incorrectly, it is even more important that measures are robust. There is no doubt that releasing this information would have caused great distress to the woman, her children and the rest of her family.”

The information was released in July 2014 in response to a Subject Access Request, a formal way of requesting information under the Data Protection Act. The person responsible for handling the request advised the child’s GP about it, but in the absence of a sufficient written procedure, went ahead and released everything. The ICO found staff did not receive adequate guidance or supervision about what could be disclosed or should be withheld.

Mr Eckersley said: “In failing to ensure staff were properly equipped to safeguard against unauthorised disclosures, this medical practice placed a member of its team in the firing line. It was unfair to expect this person to deal with the potentially devastating fall-out created by sharing personal data wrongly. GPs could have protected staff by providing proper support, training and guidance. They did not do this.”

The ICO said it issued a fine of £40,000 because the practice’s partners would be individually liable but because of the serious nature of the breach, most organisations would expect to receive a much larger fine. The ICO has the power to impose a monetary penalty on a data controller of up to £500,000; in practice at most it has given out six-figure fines.

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