Health department apologises over info leak
Updated on 26 April 2007
The Department of Health has apologised for the leak of junior doctors' personal information, first reported on Channel 4 News.
The department claims it was a malicious leak but if doctors' records were left unsecured what about patients?
This morning the man in charge of constructing the huge NHS patient record programme told MPs that he could offer "no cast iron guarantee" that nothing would go wrong.
The government admits it is a very serious security breach. The secret database of hundreds of junior doctors, with personal details - exposed to the public.
The Department of health has apologised and launched what they call a "thorough investigation".
'We have also had concerns about the security of the site'British orthopaedic trainees association
But it should not come as a surprise to the Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt.
She was warned in a letter last month from the British orthopaedic trainees association: "We have also had concerns about the security of the site with shortlisters reporting they could access deanery data and applications they had nothing to do with."
Channel 4 News has been told - not only could people read the data base, but they could even make personal changes to it.
By chance, this morning MPs have been questioning the managers of the new NHS computer system who are developing a national patient database. But will people now trust that system?
The British Medical Association is now waiting to see if any of the Junior Doctors will decide to sue the government. Legal experts believe they may have a case.
