Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about my concerns regarding the increasing list of data and information breaches that have occurred within the Department of Health and Social Services over the last nine years. Since 2010, there have been at least 10 known instances of significant breaches regarding privacy and personal patient information contained within the GNWT's Department of Health and Social Services. The types of breaches vary, but in each case has nevertheless resulted in patient information being compromised in some way.
The first two breaches, Mr. Speaker, consisted of a series of faxes containing highly personal medical information being sent to incorrect recipients. Breach three, Mr. Speaker, was identified in April 2013 by the Territorial Privacy Commissioner for incorrectly storing patient health records in their data systems. Breach number four occurred in July 2014, where a total of 195 healthcare cards were mailed to the incorrect mailing address.
Mr. Speaker, I can go on to identify each case, but others include:
- One patient's psychiatric assessment being ill-advisedly sent to her employer;
- A doctor losing an unencrypted USB drive that had health information for at least 4,000 patients;
- A discovery that several staffers at a hospital were unfittingly accessing patient health records;
- Irregularities found within the referral paperwork of a health authority;
- An unencrypted laptop which contained health records from more than 33,000 NWT residents was stolen from a car in Ottawa; and
- A man found a banker's box filled with hundreds of confidential patient records.
Mr. Speaker, this is a growing list of privacy breaches. This growing list of privacy breaches is extremely concerning. According to this list, there are at least 38,000 people whose information and privacy was breached in some way. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.