Patients’ screening results erroneously revealed in printing malfunction

A number of clients received their National Screening Centre test results in addition to data pertaining to other clients on the other side of their result letter, due to a printing malfunction.

The minister for health said a number of clients had erroneously received data pertaining to other clients on 13 May, with a same-day investigation revealing that the service provider commissioned to print and mail the test results had suffered a technical malfunction in the printing equipment.

It transpiredthat a batch of test results from the National Screening Centre were erroneously printed on double-sided paper.

The ministry instructed the primary health department to file a Data Protection Breach notification with the Information and Data Protection Commissioner for further investigation on its part. At the same time, a letter was also issued to each customer who was affected by this technical error in order to rectify the situation.