A patient from Portsmouth has today spoken after they discovered confidential handover notes of other patients left in with there own notes breaching patient confidentiality

The breach happened on the evening of 10th February 2022, the patient was taken from the waiting room into the accident and emergency minors department.

A health care support worker took the patient into a room and handed the patients notes over, whilst waiting to see a Doctor in the department the patient had a look in there notes.

The patient then discovered a a4 sized sheet of paper with notes of patients, on closer inspection they found the notes included personal details including patients names, the reason they were taken to hospital and the ages of the two patients.

Immediately the patient found the health care support worker and informed them, the health care support worker was shocked and said they shouldn’t be in there and immediately placed the notes in her pocket.

Queen Alexandra Hospital have since been made aware of the data breach and have responded with the following:

“Hello, thank for you bringing this to our attention. We have raised this with the relevant teams and are looking into this further. If it is found that this is patient identifiable information, then we would advise not to publish as it would be a breach of privacy. We will come back to you when we have further information.”

“just a note to confirm that this is currently being investigated with the appropriate teams within the Trust and that these photos cannot be disclosed anywhere due to privacy. Thank you again for bringing this to our attention.”

Due to patient confidentiality we have pixilated the personal details, however have left the assessment notes as these do not breach patient confidentiality .

Did you visit Queen Alexandra Hospital on the 10th February, are these your notes if so we urge you to make contact with us so we can get your views.