Sacred Trust

There have been a hundred and forty reported security breaches in the NHS so far this year. Even the Government, including local authorities, has not been able to do better, although that might conceivably change if unreported breaches could be taken into account. The NHS is using all the time-honoured methods of British efficiency - leaving computers next to skips, downloading information onto laptops which are then stolen, encrypting disks and carefully taping the passwords onto them - all of which will no doubt send a clear and unequivocal message that anyone who can afford to do so should go private. There is a "cavalier attitude" to data protection, according to someone whom the Independent's political correspondent, Michael Savage (no relation, I take it), refers to as "the Information Commissioner's chief enforcer" - which conjures up some fairly painful if not strictly medical imagery, mostly involving kneecaps. The Commissioner himself has warned that "the sacred principle of doctor-patient confidentiality is being compromised", since NHS medical data is supposed to be available only to the police, the security services, and companies which are able to pay for it.