In a massive privacy breach, the details of over 600 women who had abortions in the Central North Island of New Zealand have been mistakenly released to a reporter.
The Lakes District Health Board sent the information after a request under the Official Information Act.
The youngest person to be affected by the breach was 13-years-old at the time of her abortion.
The spreadsheet included birth dates, National Health Index (NHI) numbers, ethnicities, abortion details and the suburbs in which the patients lived at the time.
While identities were not immediately apparent on the spreadsheet, any health worker who viewed the data would be able to discover names by entering the NHI number into the national database.
The abortions took place between 2011 and 2013 at Tokoroa, Thames and Waikato Hospitals, which are all in the Central North Island.
While the Lakes District Health Board has apologized to the women affected by the breach, the incident is being investigated by the Ministry of Health, together with the Privacy Commissioner.
Over the last six years privacy breaches have been increasing in New Zealand.
The last privacy breach involving abortion occurred in 2011. In that case a non-practicing enrolled nurse, working in the women’s health booking department at Dunedin Hospital, accidentally accessed the following day’s abortion list.
One patient scheduled to have an abortion was known to the worker. The patient’s personal file was accessed five times and she was also approached by the worker about the pregnancy.
It was decided by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal that the non-practicing nurse had committed professional misconduct and her registration was suspended for three months.