400 patient records lost after cabinet at Hong Kong’s Queen Mary Hospital mistakenly removed by contractor
- Data involved 442 elderly patients, among which some 100 are still alive and staff will reach out to them
- Patient records are usually stored for seven years, after which they will be reviewed, and those deemed useless will then be destroyed
A filing cabinet containing more than 400 patient records was suspected to have been mistakenly disposed of by a contractor at Hong Kong’s Queen Mary Hospital last Friday.
The locked four-drawer steel cabinet was used to store the service records of 442 elderly patients who had received “integrated care and discharge support” in 2012 and 2013, according to a statement released by the hospital on Wednesday.
About 100 of the patients are still alive and staff will reach out to them. The hospital has apologised for the incident.
“A preliminary investigation found that a contractor had been arranged to clear the store room on October 10 to prepare for renovation work,” the statement said. “It is suspected that the cabinet was removed during this process.”
The records contained patients’ names, identity card numbers, addresses, telephone numbers and service data, while some also included personal details of contact persons or relatives.
