The Hospital Authority (HA) has set up a task force to look into the loss of nine electronic devices at public hospitals, said its chief executive Shane Solomon yesterday.

Speaking after attending the opening ceremony of the HA Convention 2008, Solomon said nine electronic devices have been stolen from five public hospitals in the past 12 months.

Among them, eight devices were lost in public hospitals.

Seven of the cases were theft-related, and two were caused by human error.

A total of 5,988 patients were involved, he said, but 3,117 of the losses did not involve personal particulars.

Another 961 data items did not have password protection and personal information such as identity card number may have leaked, he said.

The devices were lost at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (four cases), Kowloon Hospital (two cases), Queen Mary Hospital (one case), Tuen Mun Hospital (one case) and United Christian Hospital (one case).

The lost electronic devices included four USB memory sticks, one palm handheld device, one MP3 player, one Central Processing Unit, one laptop computer and one digital camera.

The task force will be headed by former Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data Stephen Lau, HA board member Charles Mok, Hong Kong Computer Society President Sunny Lee and Chairman of the HA's Clinical Data Policy Group Chong Lap-chuen.

Solomon said the task force will review the current data security system and suggest improvements, and will come up with a report in three months.

The loss of patient data was first exposed at the end of April when the Department of Health lost a USB flash drive which contained the data of 700 patients at Tuen Mun Hospital.

Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (PCPD) Roderick Woo said he was surprised and disappointed that the HA has not proactively contacted the PCPD Office.

He said the incidents were serious and has decided to speed up investigation.

He urged Solomon to provide detailed information for the PCPD to probe into the incidents and improve its handling of personal data at public hospitals.

(HK Edition 05/06/2008 page1)