GP practices warned about their file security measures

Brits have been told of the concerns over file security that is currently taking place in NHS institutes around the UK.

Alex Teh, the commercial director of Vigil Software, pointed out that many GP practices are taking risks with the handling of personal information.

"In these GP practices, the accounts person is probably the IT person or, if they're lucky and they're big enough, you have one general support engineer rather than an IT security specialist who knows what he's doing," Mr Teh acknowledged.

He added that this is "the main concern" as it is then these individuals who are then in control of posting out recommendations of a surgery visit, as well as gaining access to medical records, which could cause problems if misplaced or lost.

The expert's warnings come soon after an IDC (International Data Corporation) Health Insights survey illustrated that the biggest threat to file security in the minds of around 20 per cent of healthcare firms in Europe, the Middle East and Africa was human error or accidents.