A COMPUTER memory stick containing clinical details of more than 200 breast cancer patients has been lost.

Hospital bosses admitted the loss this week but stress no compromising personal information could be gleaned from it by anyone who is not a health professional.

The stick held back-up information about patients going through the national screening programme for breast cancer at the Peggy Wood Breast Care Centre at Maidstone Hospital.

Hospital staff realised the stick was missing last week and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS trust’s deputy medical director, Professor Roger James, wrote to the 244 women affected on Thursday of last week.

This was followed up with a phone call over the weekend by a radiographer from the centre to try and allay women’s fears and the trust has launched a review of its IT systems.

Prof James said the information on the files included patients’ names, date of birth, and some clinical details.

These included dates patients were diagnosed with breast cancer, screening dates, and in some cases, the size of their cancers, but Mr James said much of this was in clinical codes and would not be understood by anyone who is not a health worker.

He stressed no addresses, or details of people’s hospital consultant and GPs, were on the stick’s files.

Prof James said: “We are very sorry about the loss of this information and any concern it may cause to patients.

“A few patients were concerned their medical notes might be missing, but we were able to reassure them this was not the case. Most were appreciative we had let them know what happened.

“Other patients of the breast care centre need not be concerned as we know who the people are.”

His letter told patients: “We believe the stick was lost within the hospital but there is a very small possibility that the stick was accidentally taken out of the hospital.”

Hospital bosses contacted MPs after the Kent Messenger raised the matter with the trust.

Maidstone and the Weald MP Ann Widdecombe (Con), who was told of the situation by the trust’s interim chairman, George Jenkins, on Wednesday, said: “This is regrettable, but the hospital seem confident the information could not be understood by anyone other than a cancer clinician and they are trying to put it right.”

But Tunbridge Wells MP, Greg Clark, (Con), said it was “totally unacceptable”.

The loss of the memory stick comes just two-and-a-half months after confidential patient faxes from hospitals across Kent, including Maidstone, were sent to a garden centre in East Peckham, instead of a medical centre in Larkfield.

Are you one of the patients affected? Contact our newsroom on 01622 695666 or email messengernews@thekmgroup.co.uk