North Essex: NHS trust is praised for 'robust' action over laptop theft

8:00am Monday 1st December 2008

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BOSSES at Colchester General Hospital have been praised for their handling of the theft of an NHS laptop.

In August, a senior manager of Colchester Hospital University NHS Trust was sacked after a laptop containing patients’ names and addresses was stolen from the boot of his car.

The man had been on holiday in Scotland when the theft happened.

An investigation was also carried out by the Information Commission, and Trust chief executive Peter Murphy said he was pleased with their findings.

He said: “This is confirmation that the Information Commission is not going to take any further action against the Trust.

“Their officer is of the opinion that we have made the necessary, robust and appropriate action in the matter and considers the matter closed.

“The Trust has signed an undertaking that we will do everything in our power to comply with data protection in future.

“I believe this is confirmation that we followed best practice both before and after the incident.”

Mr Murphy explained it was the Trust which reported the breach to the Information Commission which subsequently had seven complaints from members of the public.

He added: “Had it not been for a human act, which was in breach of the steps we put in place, then the incident would not have happened.”