A WOMAN entered a Fife hospital ward without permission and left with paperwork containing personal information about 14 patients, a watchdog has found.
Purporting herself to be a member of agency nursing staff, she entered St Andrews Community Hospital on February 1 and was given a shift handover document containing details of 14 patients.
She left after being challenged by a member of the hospital's nursing team, but police have been unable to recover the document or identify the person.
According to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the investigation has been hindered by a hospital staff member accidentally switching off the CCTV.
The data protection watchdog has reprimanded NHS Fife after the incident at one of its hospitals in February.
The ICO said the unauthorised person gained access to the ward and then, “due to a lack of identification checks and formal processes”, they “assisted with administering care to one patient” and were handed a document containing the personal information of 14 people.
The ICO said: “The data was taken off site by the person and has not been recovered.
“While the hospital had CCTV installed, the wall socket with the CCTV had been accidentally turned off by a member of staff prior to the incident.
“The police have not been able to identify the person or recover the lost data, hindered by the lack of CCTV footage.”
The watchdog’s investigation found NHS Fife failed to have appropriate security measures for personal information, as well as low staff training rates.
Following the incident, NHS Fife introduced new measures including a sign in and out system for documents containing patient data, and updated identification processes.
Natasha Longson, ICO head of investigations, said: “Patient data is highly sensitive information and must be handled with the appropriate security.
“When accessing healthcare and other vital services, people need to trust that their data is secure and only available to authorised individuals.
“Every healthcare organisation should look at this case as a lesson learned and consider their own policies when it comes to security checks and authorised access.
“We are pleased to see NHS Fife has introduced new measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.”
An NHS Fife spokesperson said: “NHS Fife and Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, who operate the facility, immediately reported the incident to Police Scotland and also referred the incident to the Information Commissioners Office.
"The patients involved and their families were informed of this breach of security.
"We acknowledge the findings of the Information Commissioners Office, and have apologised to those involved."
The spokesperson also said that measures to prevent a repeat incident were quickly implemented, and that a working group had been convened to implement recommendations from the ICO and an internal review across the healthcare board.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Around 3.40pm on Wednesday, 1 February, 2023, we received a report of a woman posing as a member of staff at St Andrews Community Hospital, St Andrews.
"Enquiries have been carried out and nobody has been arrested."
