Trust reassures cancer patients: your files are safe

HEALTH chiefs have hit back at claims that the confidentiality ofthousands of cancer patients was put at risk after medical fileswere found abandoned at a former Belfast hospital.

The Belfast Trust has dismissed reports that confidentialinformation belonging to more than 20,000 patients was leftunsecured at the old Belvoir Park Hospital.

Officials said the medical records had been "safely removed andrelocated" to the new cancer centre at Belfast City Hospital when itopened in 2006.

It had been alleged that sensitive memos, hazardous waste,medical equipment and X-rays identifying patients were discarded atthe derelict site for over five years.

An investigation was launched by the trust in March last yearafter a tip-off that amateur photographers were posting images ofthe hospital interior online.

According to a leaked document, more than 4,000 CT scans, X-raysand MRI scans dating from 1976 to 2006 were found on the floors,with thousands more in unsecured boxes.

Yesterday the Belfast Trust sought to reassure cancer patientswho were treated at Belvoir that their medical files were safe.

A spokeswoman said security at the site had been enhanced after anumber of X-ray images were vandalised during a break-in in 2008.

"Most of the damaged images are now of an age that they can belegally destroyed and much of this has taken place," she added.

"The Information Commissioner was not informed about the actionsof the intruders as no sensitive data was lost.

"We have, however, now informed the commissioner of the need todestroy a small number of damaged images which had not been kept forthe legal requirement of eight years."

She said that any equipment photographed on the site was"obsolete", despite claims made online that electricity had beenleft on in the operating theatres.

But others maintained that the trust had breached patientconfidentiality. Local photographer Jonny Gardner, who posted imagesof the abandoned hospital on the internet, said windows and doorswere often left open.

The latest pictures show confidential radiology documents andslides with clear images of patients' faces.