Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust exposes health data of 8,003 workers
Sick leave and health information on 7,715 employees and 288 external workers remained in hidden pivot tables in an Excel file published by Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust in response to a freedom of information request, leaving it publicly accessible for about 33 months. No patient information was included. An independent investigation identified failures in data sanitization and review and approval procedures, and the trust acknowledged the emotional distress and loss of trust experienced by affected employees.
Key facts
- Affected organization
- Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
- Incident type
- Data breach
- Occurred / detected
- Not confirmed
- Scale of damage
- Sick leave and health information of 8,003 employees and external workers
- Cause / method
- Personal information remained in hidden pivot tables in a publicly released Excel file, and data sanitization and review and approval procedures were omitted
- Location
- United Kingdom
If your data was exposed
Exposed dataHealth & medical data
- Don’t tap links in texts, calls or emails that mention this incident and offer compensation, refunds or breach checks. Check directly on the organization’s official website or app.
Timeline
- An independent investigation report confirming the exposure of sick leave and health information of 8,003 people and failures in document review and approval procedures was submitted to the board.
- The investigation report revealed that information had been exposed for about 33 months and identified problems in the response to those affected.
- The handling of the freedom of information request by the wrong department and the omission of mandatory data sanitization procedures were identified as causes of the exposure.
8 related reports
- Cornwall hospital data breach caused ‘loss of trust and ongoing anxiety’
- UK: Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust data breach exposed health details of 7,715 staff
- Hospital trust admits failings over massive staff data breach
- Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS data breach exposed health records of 8,000 workers
- UK hospital leaks thousands of health records
- NHS breach helpline left staff carrying a 'significant emotional burden'
- Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust review highlights impact of data breach
- Hospital staff faced 'significant distress' over data breach
The summary and key facts are written by AI from related reports and may contain errors. Check the original articles and the organization’s official statements for accurate details.