The secrets of Law Hospital

Unfortunately not somewhere we’ve managed to fall through the doors of on a wander – and we wouldn’t make quite so much noise about it if we did – Law Hospital, Carluke, managed to to gain some prominence in the news, and should (although I expect it will be dismissed) be taken as yet another nail to be driven into the coffin that the National Database and ID Card scheme should be buried in, proving once again that the authorities can only demonstrate there failure to demonstrate their fitness to be trusted with out information.

In this case, someone having a wander around the deserted hospital buildings found that confidential patient information had simply been discarded when the old Law Hospital was abandoned back in 2001. The hospital was originally built in 1939 as an emergency medical service hospital, and remained in use until it was closed on May 25, 2001.

In January, developers announced a £100m project to create 500 homes on the hospital site.

BBC Scotland has since visited the site, and stated that there was one security guard at the front gate of the former hospital. What was point of mentioning him? Is he there for NHS Lanarkshire, or the developers? Is his job to protect the site contents, or just watch for vandals? We weren’t told.

Found inside the derelict buildings were various x-rays and other items, which have now appeared over the internet, and been shown on the news.

As usual, there’s much rhetoric, criticism, (mock?) surprise, expressions of disappointment, promises of investigations, and assurances that the relevant procedures are in place, but all this does is score political points, while confidential data and personal information is still dropped at people’s backsides, and no individual is held accountable, presumably to avoid upsetting anyone and prompting a strike or something.

This follows a recent, similar incident in May, at Strathmartine Hospital near Dundee, under NHS Tayside.