Hospital Authority vows to revive public trust as stories emerge of protesters arrested after personal details leaked by city-run facilities
- Leung Pak-yin, chief executive of the Hospital Authority, announces new task force to boost data security
- Move comes as protester’s account of hospital arrest deepens public doubt
Hong Kong’s public hospital operator has promised to win back public trust by enhancing its patient data system after reports emerged of injured protesters being arrested because city-run medical centres leaked their information to police.
Leung Pak-yin, the chief executive of the Hospital Authority, announced on Thursday that a special three-member task force would be set up to identify ways to protect patients’ medical information. He said the task force would take three months to explore new technologies that might boost security and add another firewall to the authority’s data system.
“The task force will see how to better protect patients’ privacy in a comprehensive manner,” Leung said. “In recent days, citizens had become suspicious about [the authority’s] privacy protection. I apologise for that.”
Leung’s pledge comes after a young protester’s account of being arrested at a public hospital had deepened concern about how city-run medical facilities protect patients’ data from the police – especially in the aftermath of recent anti-extradition violence.
The recent Baptist University graduate, who asked to be called “Ah Yuen”, was treated at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the evening of June 12, hours after being hit in the head with a tear-gas canister during the clashes with the police. The violence erupted after a mammoth protest march against the government’s extradition bill that ended outside the legislature in Admiralty.
