A laptop has been stolen from the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, which contains personal and financial information on the trust’s 10,000 staff.
The computer had payroll data on all of the trust’s employees and was stolen from locked and alarmed premises on 1 May.
In a statement, the trust told E-Health Insider: “We can confirm that a computer containing personal information of Cornwall NHS employees has been stolen from locked and alarmed NHS premises in Truro, which were forcibly entered.”
The laptop is password protected, but the trust could not guarantee that the data would remain confidential, should the thieves attempt to gain access to the system.
They added: “Although it is believed the theft was opportunistic and not for the purpose of obtaining the information stored on the computer, as a precaution staff have been advised to contact their banks to advise them of the theft and to consider registration with a fraud prevention service.”
The theft is now under investigation by police and will also be the subject of an internal investigation.
The trust was keen to state that there was no patient information stored on the computer and apologised to its staff for the inconvenience.
“Clearly, we are very sorry for any inconvenience or anxiety this may have caused staff.”