03.11.10
Information safety
The National Health Service holds huge amounts of data but are those in charge of the data doing enough to protect it, asks Richard Mackillican
Earlier this year the Information Commissioner’s Office announced that it had received reports of over 1,000 data breaches of which just under a third came from the NHS.
Not only was the number of data breaches attributed to the NHS more than the all of the breaches made by local and central government combined, it also exceeded the total number of breaches emanating from the entire private sector.
So why is this happening?
“The NHS is one of our biggest customers because it is one of the nation’s biggest organisations and employers,” says Information Commissioner Christopher Graham.
“It is also a very big user of IT so I am not panicked by these figures because it is important to raise awareness. More cases are brought to our attention and then something can be done about it.”
This was certainly borne out by the figures obtained by the Information Commissioner’s Office, which showed that there had been an increase of over 50 per cent in the number of breaches reported in the last year.
Although some of this increase is attributable to an increase in awareness, it also suggests there is an issue with data security in the NHS, about which something has to be done.
“The ICO wants trusts to be aware that as the users of databases – which, in their case, would include the most sensitive information - they need to be particularly alert when ensuring that data is kept securely and used appropriately.
“We are very concerned to be partners with the NHS and to ensure that trusts use best practice and are careful to avoid, so far as possible, breaches in data security. This means that we go out of our way to let trusts know that we are here to help them.
“We are not trying to catch them out but they also need to be aware that we will take formal steps to obtain undertakings, such as in the cases of NHS Stoke-on-Trent and Basingstoke and North Hampshire NHS Foundation Trust.”
These undertakings require the manager involved to sign a notice which states that they are aware of their responsibilities and that serious action will be taken if they do not live up to those responsibilities in the future.
“The ICO now has a very big ‘stick in the cupboard’ to back up our regulatory powers, in the form of the power to impose a monetary penalty of up to half a million pounds on organisations which are persistent offenders or those aren’t taking notice. This threat is certainly something to make people sit up and take notice.”
In addition to this monetary penalty, the management of trusts which consistently break data protection rules will also face huge embarrassment, along with the deeply unattractive prospect of professional humiliation and loss of reputation, whilst having their breaches dealt with in public.
“The consequences for the management involved in these proceedings are enormous as this would be a very big public failure. There are also consequences for the reputation for a particular trust, such as the loss of confidence of patients and users more widely.”
This is a signal to managers that this is important, not just something that can be ignored because it isn’t considered to directly involve the frontline when the opposite is true, according to Christopher.
“This issue is fundamentally frontline because staff are using all of the time to deliver patient care through the use of some of the most sensitive information which can be held on those patients.”
As a key regulator in Britain, the Information Commissioner’s Office is also keen to ensure that people see that it is putting just as much emphasis on education, advice and guidance, as they do into more formal enforcement.
“We are not trying to frighten anyone but it is imperative that people realise just how important data protection is to all of us.”
Hopefully, this message will resonate more widely with NHS managers. The first time the ICO issued a warning to the NHS to clean it up its act, the number of incidents of data loss actually rose.
“It was a rather enterprising journalist who noted that after our initial warning, the number of reported data breaches had risen by fifty per cent and so enquired as to why this was happening. My response was that the reason for this was a mixture of the fact that the NHS is a huge organisation which has had the importance of these issues drawn to its attention and so is reporting more.
“I don’t look at those figures and think that everything is fine but that the NHS is a disaster area – all it says is that the NHS is a big organisation and we already knew that.”
To further its campaign to increase data security in the NHS, the ICO is trying to get as much publicity as possible for the undertakings which it does become involved with so that other NHS organisations will take notice.
“Our new and strengthened enforcement division is even now sifting through breaches to find examples of where we should begin to consider using our new powers for civil monetary penalties.
“So if organisations want to work with us, we are very keen to conduct a compliance audit with them to see how they are placed, which would then help us to formulate some practice recommendations. Managers should also remember that all of our resources, help and guidance are available through our website.
“This means that there really is no excuse for any NHS management to say they didn’t know or that they were not warned of the consequences of what would happen if they do not comply properly with data protection practices.
“If they refuse to take the hand of friendship, help and guidance which the ICO is offering them and continue to foul up, then it is going to get very tricky for them and they would do well to contemplate the size of the monetary penalty which the ICO can impose upon them.”
That monetary penalty would sting even more than usual given the budgetary pressures which many NHS trusts are facing at the moment. But could these pressures also impact on trusts’ ability to deal to provide proper data protection?
“The challenge for all managers within the public sector, myself included, is to deliver excellent services whilst using less resources. The mistake we can make is to believe that some things are not ‘frontline’ and so do not matter. I think that IT is so key to delivering excellent services that it would be a real mistake to think that it is not part of the front line service which the NHS offer.
“I am afraid that I am not going to avoid enforcing the law just because I have been fed a load of sob stories about how organisations have had to cut back on their information security divisions. That is simply not an option. Cut back on your IT securities at your peril.”
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