What a to-do ...

... the Aneurin Bevan Health Board fined £70,000 by the Information Commissioners Office for sending a report containing explicit details relating to a patient’s health to the wrong person.

 Hat Tip Valleys Mam

The safeguarding of personal information by public and private bodies, should be awarded the gravitas the public apportion it, but what about the Aneurin Health Board …

It serves an estimated population of over 639,000, approximately 21% of the total Welsh population?

435,013 patients were seen and treated in Outpatient clinics during the year 2010/2011?

21,103 outpatient appointments were carried out in mental health?

Between April and July 2010, 1476 bins of waste medicine were collected from pharmacists in the Gwent area? Placed end to end this would be the length of 79 double decker buses.

2.5 million GP consultations take place every year in the Health Board area. 88,000 calls were made to the GP our of hours service, 60% of these were made over the weekend?

47,244 operations are carried out in our acute hospitals, Caerphilly District Miners' Hospital, Nevill Hall Hospital and the Royal Gwent Hospital.

There were 150,712 new patient attendances at our Accident and Emergency Departments.

There were 10,529 new patient attendances at Minor Injuries Units in community hospitals.

 Unfortunately having to pay the fine of£70,000 this record of service will be reduced, my prediction.

 So my question to those that impose the fine ...

As a taxpayer and patient of the Aneurin Health Board ...

... why are you penalising me and every other of the 639,000 people served by the Aneurin Health Board because an otherwise excellent clinical organisation has a problem with its administration.

The politicians that created a legislative structure that penalises innocent patients because of administrative mistakes smacks of political duplicity, the inability to formulate the means to protect

personal information is juvenile. We don't need fines,

But when the Information Commissioners Office head of enforcement, says

"....... organisations across the health service must stand up and take notice of this decision if they want to avoid future enforcement action from the ICO."

He confirms the actions of the Information Commissioners Office were an attempt to bully other health service organisations into submission, better if this organisation became proactive amongst the disparate taxpayer funded organisations, help them get better ....... but the fine is the easy way out, all mouth and trousers by un-civil servants.