PRINCE ALBERT – The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) is advising Prince Albert and area residents of an incident that has resulted in the loss of lab samples resulting in a privacy breach.
SHA says it is being treated as a privacy breach given that personal health information is on the sample.
During the early morning hours of June 7 a third-party courier vehicle containing lab samples was stolen. Although police located the vehicle, the majority of the packages containing the lab samples have yet to be recovered.
Staff are reviewing health records associated with the missing samples. The SHA has and will continue to directly contact patients and their health-care provider to inform them of the incident and outline next steps
SHA apologizes to anyone affected by this incident, and say they are making every effort to expedite direct patient and provider contact.
Should anyone come across packages labelled for delivery to a Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) Laboratory do not open the packages, or if the packages have been opened, do not touch the specimens. Please call HealthLine 8-1-1 so that appropriate arrangements can be made to recover the specimens.
The SHA places the utmost importance in safely transporting lab samples and protecting personal health information through both its own services, as well as those provided by contractors. A full review is underway into what occurred to prevent similar incidents in the future.
