EDMONTON, AB: Wildrose Shadow Health Minister Drew Barnes released the following statement regarding a former AHS employee inappropriately accessing thousands of medical files:
“It’s deeply disappointing to learn that a former employee had the ability to violate the health privacy of over ten thousand Albertans.
“We want to thank the whistleblower for alerting AHS to this privacy breach. It shows how important it is to strengthen our current whistleblower legislation and improve transparency. It is also concerning to know that this serious breach of privacy only became apparent because of a tip from a former employee.
“As we move towards an electronic health record model, a system must be developed to audit employees, and to ensure that patient health record privacy is paramount.”