Victim's new address sent to abuser in Dorset NHS data breach

The reprimand requires the trust to review its practices

An NHS trust has been reprimanded after sending a letter containing the new address of a victim of abuse to his alleged abusive ex-partner.

The Dorset trust had a system where the same correspondence sent to multiple people would include all addresses.

The organisation was criticised in a report by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust has apologised for the data breach.

It says it has updated its systems "to help ensure incidents of this kind do not happen again".

The data breach happened at one of the trusts which runs Poole, Christchurch and the Royal Bournemouth hospitals. It is unclear from the report which hospital was to blame.

'Parental disputes'

The report stated the man had not advised the trust not to disclose his address but it would be a "reasonable expectation" the personal information would not have been sent without permission.

Although the person has not has made a complaint, there is now a risk of unwanted contact which will remain, the report added.

The trust admitted it failed to have a clear process for managing situations where there are parental disputes and the same correspondence needs to be sent to people at different addresses.

The ICO welcomed steps taken to rectify the matter, which saw an apology given in-person by a doctor to the man involved.

It also noted changes to procedures, including, when requested by a parent, a clinician dictating a letter would note that a duplicate letter should be blind copied to the other parent.

University Hospitals Dorset said: "We apologise for this breach of data and accept the findings...

"We also extend a further apology to the individual concerned and recognise the distress the breach may have caused."

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