Canberra Health Services should have been upfront about breach of patient privacy

But, as usual, we didn't learn of this matter of intense public interest by a timely disclosure from health authorities. Instead it took The Canberra Times and the opposition to bring it to light.

Through all of the recent travails and stuff-ups in the ACT health sector, one consistency has been this failure to be upfront about them.

As she gave Health Minister Rachel Stephen Smith a welcome break from dealing with the latest drama, by dint of being with strictly within her mental health portfolio, Emma Davidson gave an odd excuse for not telling the public.

She claimed it was because authorities wanted to ensure patients were being looked after before the matter was in the media.

That suggests she and the government had any control over it being made public beyond the moment it was sent out in an email to more than 8000 CHS staff earlier this month.

As dubious as Ms Davidson's excuse may be, authorities should have been upfront with Canberrans who would be rightly horrified if their information had been subject to this kind of breach.

This is very serious. We're talking about whole clinical records being shared without consent from patients. It is a gross betrayal of trust.

It appears to have been a concerted effort over many years to distribute this highly confidential information.

Of course there were many questions for the ACT government after this was revealed on Tuesday.

As usual, the government ducked and weaved, citing an ongoing investigation.

Given the data breach is being investigated by police, which is the right response to this issue, it is fair that some questions cannot be answered.

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But as usual, this was taken as a blanket of secrecy to be thrown over the entire incident. Ms Davidson would not even say whether the staff involved were still in their jobs.

The only thing she said was: "I've been assured by CHS that any staff involved have no further access to confidential information."

This was a question that deserved an answer, even with an investigation underway.

It is also unclear about what type of organisation this information was shared with other than it being defined as an "industrial partner". What is that?

Ms Davidson tells us it is not a health fund but beyond that it is unclear.

What seems clear is the need for an inquiry into patient records across Canberra Health Services to make sure this is not an isolated incident. If there isn't, the government will have some explaining to do.

Health records are among the most private of information and this serious breach will have many worried. Authorities need to do everything they can to reassure people their information is protected.

We begrudgingly accept data gets breached in the 21^st century but the test is how organisations handle the response.

Trust is precious and it's very hard to win back.

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