Sensitive ACC client files go missing

A report from 3 News by Charlotte Shipman

Sensitive information about ACC clients, who were rape and sexual assault victims, has been stolen after the ACC contractor who was entrusted with them packed them in a suitcase that was stolen from a bus.
We are calling her "Milly". She's a sexual abuse victim whose confidential ACC file has been stolen when it should have been safe. The file has details of her abuse and all her personal information. It has her home address – a fact she finds very frightening.
“I've got a family,” she says. “I've got babies.”
Her independent psychiatrist contracted by ACC had the files on an InterCity bus between Whanganui and Palmerston North last month. It was in a leopard-print trolley case along with six other sensitive ACC clients' files.
“We're talking about rape victims – victims of sexual abuse, victims of sexual violence,” says Palmerston North Women’s Centre advocate Rachel Buck.
The bag was put in the luggage compartment underneath the bus, but when the bus got to Palmerston North the bag wasn't there. It had been stolen, possibly at a stop in Feilding.
“Sensitive files, people's lives, shouldn't be placed into a leopard-skin trolley bag for starters,” says Ms Buck. "Sensitive information should be sitting in a locked briefcase on her lap on that bus.”
The psychiatrist told the police the same night the bag was stolen. But it was another three days before she told ACC. Two days after that she told the Medical Protection Society and the Privacy Commissioner. It was nearly a week after the file went missing that the psychiatrist told Milly.
“It's disgusting,” says Milly. “It's something that should never have happened.”
But privacy breaches are happening. In March, 6700 clients' details were sent to ACC claimant Bronwyn Pullar. An ACC employee mixed up the details of 118 clients and sent them to other clients a week ago.
In a statement a short time ago, ACC said the matter is currently under investigation as part of a wider review of all ACC privacy issues, including the transportation of files.

© 2012 MediaWorks TV

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