Thousands of records lost as laptops go missing

The loss of laptops containing thousands of NHS patient records are being investigated by the police and Information Commissioner’s Office.

More than 2,600 records have been lost or misplaced in London over the past year in 65 separate incidents.

One of the laptops was stolen from NHS North Central London earlier this month, and police are now investigating.

A spokesman said: “One of the machines was used for analysing health needs requiring access to elements of unnamed patient data.

“All the laptops were password protected and our policy is to manually delete data after the records have been processed. We operate under strict data protection guidance and are taking the matter extremely seriously.”

The Department of Health said: “All NHS organisations are legally required to comply with data protection legislation, expected to take data loss extremely seriously, and be open about incidents and about action taken as a result.”

The Information Commissioner's Office said: “Any allegation that sensitive personal information has been compromised is concerning. We will make inquiries to establish the facts.”