No further action will be taken by the Information Commissioner against Liverpool’s main hospital trust after the personal information of thousands of staff was emailed to hundreds of people.
It was revealed last month how in December 2022, a file was sent by email to hundreds of managers at the Liverpool University Hospital Foundation Trust (LUHFT) - which includes the Royal and Aintree hospitals - which included the personal information of thousands of staff members including names, addresses, National Insurance numbers and salaries. James Sumner, LUHFT chief executive, confirmed to a meeting of the Trust’s board that the Information Commissioner’s office had determined no further action would be taken following the breach.
In his written board report, Mr Sumner said the breach arose as a consequence of the “unintentional sharing” of personal staff information with Trust managers, via email, during a file sharing exercise that was conducted to support management of payroll details as part of arrangements around strike action. Trust staff were informed by email on February 8 of the data breach with Mr Sumner issuing letters to those impacted.
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The chief executive’s report said the Trust undertook a full email recovery and deletion process and reported itself to the Information Commissioner. In an update from Rob Forster, chief finance officer and deputy chief executive, it was said an internal review of the data breach was “drawing towards finalisation” and would be subject to independent external assessment before its findings were released.
It is expected it will be released to Trust officials by the end of this month. The board meeting at the new Royal Liverpool Hospital was told of a formal warning issued to the Trust by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
On January 27, the HSE undertook a cyclical inspection of Liverpool Clinical Laboratories (LCL) facilities. While inspectors commended the overall management system at LCL, concerns were raised about a “nominal risk gap” in its health and safety arrangements. A written report by Helen Garnett, senior corporate governance officer, said a follow-up meeting was requested by HSE whereby it was revealed the Trust would receive further enforcement in the form of an improvement notice.
According to a supplementary report, this was in relation to “the inability to provide a written scheme of examination for pressure systems.” The deadline to comply with the requirements of the HSE is May 3, with the Trust’s executive quality and safety group overseeing progress.
Concerns have also been raised regarding the number of documents the Trust holds which are out of date. Ms Garnett’s report said 839 outstanding documents were in need of review, with a call to action issued to those responsible to ensure appropriate assessments were undertaken.
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