Colchester University Hospital has sacked one of its managers over the theft of his work laptop, which contained unencrypted patient records.

The PC - which was stolen (pdf) from the unnamed manager's car in June - contained copies of the personal details and treatment plans of several thousand patients. Thieves took the machine after breaking into the car, which was parked in Edinburgh at the time, where the unnamed manager was holidaying.

Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust said (pdf) that the manager involved was dismissed following a disciplinary panel last Friday. "The unanimous decision of the disciplinary panel sends out a clear statement about how seriously the Trust takes security and patient confidentiality. I again apologise for the distress the theft of this laptop may have caused," said Peter Murphy, chief executive of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust.

Data loss cock-ups are all too common and rarely result in anyone been shown the door.

Jamie Cowper, director of marketing at PGP, said that responsibility for implementing adequate security policies ultimately rests at board level.

"Technologies such as encryption should be implemented and managed on an enterprise-wide basis, not left up to the individual. Unless there is evidence of grievous misconduct, the responsibility for data security should lie with the organisation as a whole – and that means that in cases such as this, punishment should be top-down rather than bottom-up." ®

Related stories

• Royal laptop theft 'will expose picture' (18 December 2008)
• Midwife's lost diary sparks mums and baby alert (14 August 2008)
• GPS tracking slapped on laptop recovery service (8 August 2008)
• London hospital loses 20,000 unencrypted patient files (18 June 2008)
• Thief swipes cabinet minister's laptop from Salford office (17 June 2008)
• NHS IT four years late and over budget (16 May 2008)
• DWP still sending out passwords and discs together (9 May 2008)
• London borough lost children's data three times (15 April 2008)
• Confidential Home Office data turns up in laptop on eBay (28 February 2008)
• 5,000 NHS records vanish with latest lost laptop (15 February 2008)
• MPs call for stronger data protection laws (3 January 2008)
• Information security breaches quadrupled in 2007 (2 January 2008)