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A civil liberties group has found instances of UK patient information being posted on Facebook, it was revealed today.

Civil liberties group Big Brother Watch submitted FOI requests between July 2008 and July 2011 and found there were at least 806 separate incidents where patient medical records were compromised in some manner.

The findings include more than 20 incidents of patient information being posted on social networking sites and 91 instances of NHS staff looking up details of colleagues.

According to the information requests 24 NHS Trusts saw confidential information stolen, lost or left behind by staff and more than 40 NHS trusts failed to respond to the FOI requests.

More than 100 staff were dismissed as a consequence of these breaches of Data Protection policy.

Nick Pickles, director of Big Brother Watch, said: 'This research highlights how the NHS is simply not doing enough to ensure confidential patient information is protected.'

Speaking at the 10th annual data protection compliance conference in London, Information Commissioner Christopher Graham said data breaches in the NHS continue to be 'major problem' Of the 47 undertakings the ICO has agreed with organisations that have breached the Data Protection Act since April, over 40 percent (19) were in the healthcare sector.

The findings come days after the Commons Justice Select Committee argued courts should have the power to punish people breaching the Data Protection Act with custodial sentences, saying fines are an 'inadequate' deterrent.

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