BMA condemns appalling breach of junior doctors' confidentiality

"What little faith anyone had left in this shambolic system has just evaporated. It is a breach of security on an appalling scale. The ease with which anyone could have accessed highly sensitive information about thousands of people is frankly shocking. The BMA has raised concerns about the security of the MTAS website on more than one occasion. The Department of Health had months to put it right and failed. There can be no excuse for this."

Emily Rigby, chair of the BMA Medical Students Committee, adds:
'Many of the people affected are currently taking their finals and this just adds to the stress they're under. We're incredibly concerned about the extent of the breach and the surrounding security issues. We demand a full and thorough investigation and to know what steps will be taken to assure this can never happen again.'

'What has happened is appalling and it's inexcusable. We raised concerns about online security for medical students' applications last year after the system was hacked into. We were given explicit assurances it wouldn't happen again. Despite improvements this year in the MTAS system for students there are still areas of concern and confidence is fragile. The breach has led to many students questioning the validity of the system.'

The Liberal Democrats have written to the Information Commissioner asking him to urgently investigate the release of sensitive personal data of junior doctors on a Government website.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb MP wrote to Richard Thomas about the availability of the data on the Department of Health's Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) website, which was discovered last night.

The letter said:

Re: Lead of personal data on MTAS website

I write regarding the very disturbing news about access to the sensitive personal data of junior doctors via the Department of Health's Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) website, as reported on the evening of 25th April.

The lack of consideration for the security of personal data in this case seems to constitute a serious breach of the Data Protection Act. I am sure you will agree this is an extremely concerning situation. I therefore ask that you thoroughly and urgently investigate this matter.

I would also like you to consider whether this development casts further doubt on the advisability of persisting with the MTAS system without further thorough piloting and without cast iron reassurance as to the integrity of the system and safeguards to protect sensitive personal data.

Are there any lessons to be learnt from this debacle in respect of the plans to establish a national database of patient records under the ‘Connecting for Health' IT programme?

I understand that the junior doctor campaign group Remedy UK has also written to you calling for the firmest possible action to be taken in respect of the apparent breach of the Data Protection Act.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,

Norman Lamb
Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Health

Related links to this article:
Department of Health

Responding to reports that sensitive information about medical students applying for their first jobs through the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) could be accessed by anyone looking at the MTAS website,Dr Jo Hilborne, chairman of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, says:

'What little faith anyone had left in this shambolic system has just evaporated. It is a breach of security on an appalling scale. The ease with which anyone could have accessed highly sensitive information about thousands of people is frankly shocking. The BMA has raised concerns about the security of the MTAS website on more than one occasion. The Department of Health had months to put it right and failed. There can be no excuse for this.'

Emily Rigby, chair of the BMA Medical Students Committee, adds:
'Many of the people affected are currently taking their finals and this just adds to the stress they're under. We're incredibly concerned about the extent of the breach and the surrounding security issues. We demand a full and thorough investigation and to know what steps will be taken to assure this can never happen again.'

'What has happened is appalling and it's inexcusable. We raised concerns about online security for medical students' applications last year after the system was hacked into. We were given explicit assurances it wouldn't happen again. Despite improvements this year in the MTAS system for students there are still areas of concern and confidence is fragile. The breach has led to many students questioning the validity of the system.'

The Liberal Democrats have written to the Information Commissioner asking him to urgently investigate the release of sensitive personal data of junior doctors on a Government website.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb MP wrote to Richard Thomas about the availability of the data on the Department of Health's Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) website, which was discovered last night.

The letter said:

Re: Lead of personal data on MTAS website

I write regarding the very disturbing news about access to the sensitive personal data of junior doctors via the Department of Health's Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) website, as reported on the evening of 25th April.

The lack of consideration for the security of personal data in this case seems to constitute a serious breach of the Data Protection Act. I am sure you will agree this is an extremely concerning situation. I therefore ask that you thoroughly and urgently investigate this matter.

I would also like you to consider whether this development casts further doubt on the advisability of persisting with the MTAS system without further thorough piloting and without cast iron reassurance as to the integrity of the system and safeguards to protect sensitive personal data.

Are there any lessons to be learnt from this debacle in respect of the plans to establish a national database of patient records under the ‘Connecting for Health' IT programme?

I understand that the junior doctor campaign group Remedy UK has also written to you calling for the firmest possible action to be taken in respect of the apparent breach of the Data Protection Act.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,

Norman Lamb
Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Health

Related links to this article:
Department of Health