CONFIDENTIAL medical information including patient names, addresses and medical details were found abandoned in public places last year.

The private documents were handed in to health bosses after being located in a bin, a hospital car park and a recently-cleaned hospital apartment, a report has revealed.

A fourth serious data breach came to light when a patient found a handover sheet charting medical information within an envelope containing their discharge letter.

Leaders at the helm of the trust that runs Furness General Hospital claim the patients involved in the most serious incidents – those classified as level two – have been notified of the errors. The mistakes have spurred on executives at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust to employ a dedicated “privacy officer” whose role is to ensure patient information is protected.

A spokesman for the trust said actions had been taken following the discovery of patient handover notes in public areas.

He said: “The trust has taken a number of steps that ensure data breaches are kept to a minimum.

“Firstly, we have invested in a dedicated privacy officer whose role is to champion the privacy protection of patients.

“There is also mandatory training for all new members of staff and annual refresher training on data governance.

“In addition, only people involved in direct patient care can access information relating to any given patient at any time.”

The four level two data breaches, which took place in June, July and August last year as well as in January this year, have all been referred to the Office of the Information Commissioner – a government body that considers confidentiality and data breaches – for external investigation.

The cases were in addition to 82 further occasions when personal data, including hospital numbers and medical details including investigations and planned care, were not kept confidential.

These included 38 disclosures in error, 20 sets of notes lost in transit, seven lost or stolen notes and four incidences access to information was unauthorised. The news was revealed in UHMBT’s annual report published last week.

It shows there was a reduction in the number of incidents for the 2014/15 year from 100 cases in 2013/14.