SDHB loses women's breastscreen images

Breast examination images of 3850 South Island women have been lost due to an IT server failure but no patients have been put at clinical risk, Southern DHB says.

District Health Board chief executive Carole Heatly disclosed the data loss before Parliament's health select committee today.

She said letters had gone out to the affected women and their GPs today.

"We've had an IT server failure which resulted in some lost images of breast examinations. All of the images have been reported on by a senior doctor and the results have been filed in the patient's case notes.

"The patients and the GPs have been informed of the results so there's no clinical risk to these women.

"However, in the spirit of open disclosure, we've written to every woman affected and to their GPs to first and foremost apologise and to reassure them that their images, whilst lost from the server, have been reported on by a senior clinician and those reports have been retained in their case notes."

- Matthew Backhouse, of APNZ 

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