A district health board is trying to find out how the medical notes of hospital patients were found by a man putting out his rubbish in Auckland's North Shore.
Waitemata DHB says it has apologised to patients. Photo: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
The clinical information of 11 patients were discovered by Neil Summerfield on the driveway of his home in Forrest Hill.
The notes included the patients' names, diagnoses and discharge details.
Waitemata District Health Board, the biggest DHB in the country, says it has contacted all but one of the affected patients to apologise.
Chief medical officer Andrew Brant said there would be an internal review to determine how it happened and to reduce the chance of it happening again.
Dr Brant describes it as an isolated but concerning incident and said the DHB took any breach of patient privacy very seriously.