Throughout this article, we examine how your personal or special category data, if involved in a clinic data breach, can cause you harm. Two main pieces of legislation govern data protection and set data breach compensation eligibility criteria. We examine these and investigate what the claiming criteria are.
We discuss what personal data may be involved in a breach. As well as looking at what impact a data breach involving your personal data could have on your life.
Clinic Data Breach Claims Guide
We look at data security incidents in the health sector with the latest statistics. We also examine how organisations could prevent a data breach.
If your personal data was involved in a clinic data breach, you might want to know how much compensation you will get for a data breach in the UK. Due to every claim being different, we can’t provide you with an exact figure, but we do examine the two heads that could make up a data breach claim.
If you decide to claim data breach compensation, you may find the process easier with medical data breach solicitors. We discuss No Win No Fee arrangements and how one could benefit your claim.
Our health data breach claims team is available to answer questions if your personal data was involved in a clinic data breach 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Contact the team:
- Call: 0800 073 8804
- Use the claim online form
- Why not chat to an advisor using the chat box below
Choose A Category
- What Is A Clinic Data Breach?
- Why Is Data Protection Important In Healthcare?
- What Is The Most Common Cause Of Healthcare Data Breaches?
- The Lister Fertility Clinic Data At Risk
- What Compensation Can I Get For A Clinic Data Breach?
- Claim With No Win No Fee Solicitors
What Is A Clinic Data Breach?
You may wonder what defines a personal data breach. A personal data breach is defined as a security incident. The availability, integrity or confidentiality of your personal data will be impacted. Clinics can offer all different kinds of treatments, some medical and non-medical. However, if a clinic decides how and why your personal data should be processed under data protection laws, they are known as a data controller.
The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), along with the Data Protection Act 2018, governs data protection. Under this legislation:
- Data controllers are held responsible for data protection legislation compliance. A data controller is typically an organisation, such as a clinic, that processes data. A controller may appoint a data processor to act on their behalf they too are held accountable for data protection.
- Data subjects are given increased rights over the processing of their personal data.
- Sets specific data breach compensation eligibility.
If your personal or special category data was included in a clinic data breach, you might have a valid compensation claim under Article 82 of the UK GDPR. Eligibility criteria include:
- You must prove the organisation didn’t adhere to the data protection legislation.
- The breach included your personal data.
- You were harmed as a direct result of the data breach. This could be a monetary loss or mental health harm such as stress.
Our advisory team can help you start a clinic data breach claim today.
Time Limit For Clinic Data Breach Claims
You might be wondering what time limits apply to clinic data breach claims. Unlike personal injury claims, in which you typically have three years to take action, the limitation period to claim when your data is breached is six years from the date of the incident.
However, the time limit is shortened to just one year if the breach impacts your human rights or it involves a public body. Therefore, you should act as quickly as possible when beginning a claim for data breach compensation. The sooner you start your claim, the more time you’ll give yourself to gather evidence, contact a solicitor and work together to fully prepare your case.
Should you have any other questions about the time limit for health clinic data breach claims, please don’t hesitate to contact our team of friendly advisors. If you seek legal support, you could also be connected to our specialist data breach solicitors.
Why Is Data Protection Important In Healthcare?
Data protection legislation gives additional protection to your medical records. This is due to their sensitivity. Personal data that is sensitive in nature, including your sexuality or race, is known as special category data.
Personal data may include:
- Name
- Date of birth
- Address
- Phone number
- Email address
If someone were to gain unauthorised access to your medical records, they could gain access to your personal identifying data as well as your special category data. This could be used to commit identity theft. Additionally, if a clinic data breach involves the loss of medical records, treatment you may require could be delayed.
Contact our medical data breach claims team for free legal advice.
What Is The Most Common Cause Of Healthcare Data Breaches?
Human error is behind a lot of data breaches. An organisation should provide data protection training to staff with data access. Additionally, they should ensure their cybersecurity systems are up-to-date to prevent cyber attacks, such as hacking. Staff should also be trained in cybersecurity. This could prevent phishing attempts, for example.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is an independent authority established to help protect data. Their role includes monitoring reported data security incidents. We’ll look at reported incidents in healthcare below.
As you can see in the graph, unauthorised access was the most common reported non-cyber incident in the health sector. Following this is posting or faxing data to the wrong person, with emailing data to the wrong recipient coming in third. Lost or stolen paperwork was also a common occurrence during the timespan the statistics cover.
Our health data breach claims team can discuss the circumstances of your personal data included in a data breach.
Medical Data Security Incident Statistics
The graph below contains information about reported non-cyber data security trends in the health sector. The data controller made the reports to the ICO during the fourth financial quarter 2021/22.
Non-cyber security incidents in the health sector, Q4 financial year 2021/22
The Lister Fertility Clinic Data At Risk
Document management company, Stor-a-file Limited experienced a ransomware attack. Lister Fertility Clinic contracted Stor-a-file Limited to scan medical records. A letter was sent to 1,700 Lister Clinic patients’ about their medical records being at risk. The hackers demanded a ransom that Stor-a-file did not pay. The ICO was notified.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-59156683
What Compensation Can I Get For A Clinic Data Breach?
If your personal data breach claim for a clinic breaching your data is a success, as long as you have evidence, you could claim two areas of damage.
Material damage will look to compensate you for the financial losses you have suffered and any which you are predicted to lose in the future.
Non-materiel damage will take into account the mental health issues the data breach has caused you. This can be emotional distress, stress, anxiety and depression. In some severe cases, you may have also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
We have provided a table below with the latest Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). The JCG is very often used by professionals when calculating a figure that can reflect injury or illness in civil compensation claims.
| Mental Health Condition | Illness Category | Brackets Guidelines | Descriptions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental Health Illness | Severe Level | £54,830 – £115,730 | Cannot cope with daily activities and relationships due to symptoms. |
| Mental Health Illness | Moderate to Severe | £19,070 – £54,830 | Difficulties coping with life, but the future is more optimistic than found in the above category of mental suffering. |
| Mental Health Illness | Moderate Level | £5,860 – £19,070 | The claimant will have initially experienced problems in all areas of life, but improvements will have been made. |
| Mental Health Illness | Lesser Severity Level | £1,540 – £5,860 | Disability that impacts on daily life over a short time span. |
| Stress Disorder | Severe Level | £59,860 – £100,670 | Pre-trauma functioning does not return with permanent impact. This affects all life areas. |
| Stress Disorder | Moderate to Severe Level | £23,150 – £59,860 | Some recovery from symptoms occurs with the help of a professional, but a significant disability will be present for a while. |
| Stress Disorder | Moderate Level | £8,180 – £23,150 | A recovery largely takes place, however the claimant will still experience non-disabling symptoms still. |
| Stress Disorder | Lesser Severity Level | £3,950 – £8,180 | A virtual full recovery is made within two years. |
Our health data breach claims team can estimate the non-material head of your claim.
Claim With No Win No Fee Solicitors
If you decide to seek health data breach compensation for your personal data’s inclusion in a data breach, you may want to hire specialist medical data breach solicitors. You could hire a No Win No Fee solicitor that helps with healthcare sector data breach claims. They may provide their legal assistance with an arrangement such as a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA).
This means that you won’t be charged an upfront solicitors fee. A successful claim will see a legally capped success fee deducted from the compensation. If your personal data breach claim isn’t successful, however, you will not have to pay a success fee.
Our data breach claims team can answer your questions regarding a clinical data breach. If your claim seems valid and you wish to proceed, you could be connected to a No Win No Fee solicitor specialising in data breach claims.
Contact our data breach claims team:
- Call: 0800 073 8804
- Use the claim online form
- Why not chat to an advisor using the chat box below
Related Medical Data Breach Claims
Here are some external resources:
- NHS Stress Guide
- Government Guide to Complaining About Misuse of your Data
- ICO Guide to Claiming Data Breach Compensation
Further medical data breach claims guides:
