Some Nunavummiut who are registered as patients at the Winnipeg Children's Hospital are among 54 people whose health records were stolen last week.
The specific number of Nunavummiut affected won't be revealed publicly due to privacy concerns, stated a spokesperson with Manitoba's Shared Health, a provincial health care organization.
The information, which was kept in a locked file cabinet, was taken during a break-in at the hospital between Oct. 22 and 23, sometime in the night or early morning hours, according to a news release from Shared Health.
The stolen records relate to two days’ worth of scheduled surgical procedures.
Patient information contained in the stolen records could include the following:
• Patient name and medical record number
• Health identification numbers
• Date of birth
• Patients' phone number and address
• Contact person's name, phone number, address and relationship
• Diagnosis and type of procedure
• Name of surgeon
• Allergies
Shared Health stated that anyone affected by this breach of privacy will receive a letter from Shared Health’s chief privacy officer.
"At this point, there is no indication that patients need to take any further action to guard their personal health information as a result of this breach," Shared Health's news release reads.
Ronan Segrave, chief operating officer of the Health Sciences Centre, added, “We want to assure our patients and their families that we are taking every measure to ensure this type
of incident does not happen again in the future. We can provide families with our assurance that we have no evidence to indicate this was a targeted event, and offer our sincere
apologies for the concern this information is sure to cause.”
Winnipeg Police Service is investigating the incident.