DH reports incident of loss of student information

     The Department of Health (DH) announced today (July 7) an incident of lost personal data.

     According to a preliminary enquiry by the DH, its School Immunisation Team visited a primary school on June 26 for outreach vaccination service. Subsequently, a batch of paper record bearing information of 238 Primary One and Primary Six students, including their names, dates of birth, vaccination information as well as contact numbers of their emergency contacts, was found missing.
 
     Ongoing efforts are being made to locate the documents concerned and to find out the exact cause of the incident. The DH will also examine if the team has followed the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD)'s guidelines in the safekeeping of information.

     The DH has notified the school and is currently contacting all the affected students' parents to express apologies and to inform them of the incident. As the DH has also kept the students' vaccination records in electronic format, the incident will not affect the vaccination arrangement for the students. Two telephone hotlines (2375 4363 and 2375 4364) have also been set up for enquiries for parents during office hours.
 
     The DH has reported the incident to the PCPD and the Police. 
 
     "We extend apologies to the affected people for the inconvenience caused. The DH is very concerned about the incident and will conduct a thorough investigation with a view to avoiding recurrence of similar incidents. We have also stepped up efforts in reminding staff members of the importance of protection of personal data and privacy," a DH spokesman said.