A leading NHS sexual health clinic has been forced to apologise after accidentally leaking the HIV positive status of almost 800 patients. In a newsletter sent on Tuesday, The 56 Dean Street Clinic in London revealed the names and address of about 780 patients living with HIV.
The clinic, run by the Chelsea and Westminster NHS trust has now vowed to investigate how the data breach occurred – and a major investigation is likely to be launched by Britain’s data protection watchdog. Speaking to the Guardian, 38-year-old Elliot Herman revealed that the email contained the names of his friends – who had never previously revealed their HIV status to him.
‘It’s not difficult to put those names into Facebook and bring up their profiles and personal details’, he said.
‘If my details were on that list I would feel angry and disappointed at the clinic for having such a s**t system that this can happen.’
In a statement, the Chelsea and Westminster NHS trust said: ‘We can confirm that due to an administrative error, a newsletter about services at 56 Dean Street was sent to an email group rather than individual recipients.
‘We have immediately contacted all the email recipients to inform them of the error and apologise. Any concerned patients can call 020 3315 9555 and 020 3315 9594 (open until 6pm tonight).
Alternatively patients can ring the Telephone Clinic on 020 3315 9500’.
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