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Confidential Questionnaires Found in Skip
In the UK, healthcare specialist Adkins Medical Market Research has said it regrets an incident which led to questionnaires and documents containing personal medical details being dumped in a recycling bin.
The documents, which were accidentally collected by contractors as the firm moved from its Pembroke Dock offices, contained names, ages, addresses, phone numbers and surgery details, along with information about medical conditions and drug usage.
Among them were questionnaires completed by doctors or dentists containing details of their practices, the numbers of patients they treated for certain ailments, and information about whether those patients would be suitable for treatment with new products.
'During the move and general clear-out, papers were picked up by a company that should not have been,' MD Jack Adkins explained. 'We do have procedures in place, but in the mayhem of the move these documents were mixed up with general office papers and were accidentally taken for recycling. As soon as I became aware of what had happened I took every step to ensure they were correctly disposed of.'
The documents were found by Pembrokeshire County Council workers and were later destroyed as confidential waste.
The news follows an announcement by the Home Office that it has terminated its contract with PA Consulting, after the company lost a memory stick containing the details of up to 130,000 prisoners.
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