The patients had all taken an HPV test as part of a cervical cancer screening, but were given someone else’s test results with their name and social security number.
All those affected have been informed with a personal letter and the incident will be investigated. The region has also reported the incident to the Swedish Data Protection Authority. The cause is believed to be a mistake by a subcontractor who is in charge of the region’s digital mailings.
– We are extremely unhappy about what has happened. One of our core missions must be to handle sensitive personal data securely. But the damage is done and now we are working on trying to deal with it, says Henrik Schildt, IT director in Region Östergötland, to the newspaper.