Prince of Wales Hospital announces incident of loss of patient data

The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:

     The spokesperson for Prince of Wales Hospital (PWH) made the following announcement today (January 5) regarding an incident of loss of patient data:
 
     The hospital received a report from Lek Yuen General-outpatient Clinic, located in the Sir Yue-kong Pao Centre　for Cancer and the Lady Pao Children's Centre for Cancer, at noon on January 3 that a batch of pathology reports belonging to seven patients placed in the consultation room were found lost. The reports contained personal information including patients' names, identity card numbers, sex, age and examination results. 
 
     PWH is very concerned about the incident. Clinic staff conducted a thorough search in the clinic and in the vicinity immediately upon receiving notification. Clinic staff also contacted the patients who had entered the consultation room that morning and reviewed the CCTV footage. However, the reports could not be located. PWH has individually notified the patients concerned and reprinted the reports. Treatment for the patients was not affected. The hospital has reported the incident to the Police and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data.
 
     PWH expressed apologies to the patients affected and reported the incident to the Hospital Authority Head Office via the Advance Incident Reporting System. All staff have been reminded on the guidelines on the safe keeping and handling of patients' records.