Combined Healthcare Data Breach (2011)

A MENTAL health trust has been fined for sending medical details of three patients to a member of the public. Combined Healthcare, which runs psychiatric and learning disability services in North Staffordshire, has been told to pay £55,000. The financial penalty is for what the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) called 'a serious breach of the Data Protection Act' involving three separate faxes. They contained highly sensitive data and were sent in error to a private number between August and September 2011. The number had been dialled incorrectly each time – and the blunder only came to light when the recipient wrote to the trust.