USB flash drive with patients' info missing at Hong Kong clinic

HONG KONG, April 26 (Xinhua) -- A USB flash drive for storing the personal information of 665 patients had been missing from a clinic in Hong Kong, followed by the exposure of a separate but similar case involving 25 patients shortly after, local media reported Saturday.

The suspected theft at the Tuen Mun Child Assessment Center, involving 665 patients, happened on April 21, when a medical officer left the USB flash drive in her unlocked office and came back to find the device missing, the South China Morning Post reported.

The officer searched for the missing device in futility until after office hours and alerted her supervisor the next Monday. The supervisor reported it to the police.

The officer involved had thought the USB flash drive contained the information of a few at first. But it turned out to involve 665 patients when she checked her computer on Wednesday. The Department of Health informed the patients on the missing information thereafter and called for a press conference to offer an apology to the affected.

The data included patients' names and addresses, their photos, parents' names, phone numbers and medical records, said Gloria Tam, the city's deputy director of health.

"No suspected abuse of the data has been discovered so far. The affected families should remain alert and report to the police if approached by suspicious people with their personal data," Tam said at the press conference on Thursday afternoon.

Shortly after Tuen Mun case came to light, the Hospital Authority revealed on Thursday night that the United Christian Hospital had lost a USB flash drive used for storing the private data of 26 patients last October.

Tam said authorities had been stepping up control, requiring every officer to have passwords on removable storage devices like the missing USB flash drive, adding that the medical officer at the Tuen Mun center could face disciplinary action.

The treatment for the patients in the Tuen Mun case would not be affected as the original medical records remained intact, she said.