What Are My Rights After A Medical Data Breach?

By Jo Anderson. Last Updated 29th January 2024. This guide will provide information that could help you determine if you are eligible for medical data breach compensation. There are laws in place in the UK that set out how personal data should be protected as well as what requirements needed to be met in order to claim compensation. We explain what personal and special category data is and the eligibility criteria you must meet to make a personal injury claim. Additionally, we look at how you could be impacted should your personal medical data be breached.

If you are eligible for a medical data breach compensation amount, you may like to know what factors will go into a settlement. We explain how settlements are awarded in data breach claims.

Should you be eligible to claim for a compromise of your medical data, you may like to do so with the help of a solicitor. This guide concludes with a look at the benefits of having the support of a No Win No Fee solicitor.

If you have any questions or would like to find out if you are eligible to make a claim, please get in touch with one of the advisors from our team. To speak to an advisor:

• Contact us online for a call back.
• Call 0800 073 8801
• Use our live chat feature.

Select A Section

1. When Could You Claim Medical Data Breach Compensation?
2. Medical Data – Examples Of What Could Be Held
3. How Could A Data Protection Breach Of My Medical Records Happen?
4. What Evidence Do I Need To Claim Medical Data Breach Compensation?
5. Medical Data Breach Compensation Payouts
6. Claim Medical Data Breach Compensation With A No Win No Fee Solicitor
7. Related Guides To Claiming Medical Information Data Breach Compensation

When Could You Claim Medical Data Breach Compensation?

The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA) protect the personal data of UK residents, which is any information that can be used to identify you. This legislation outlines the steps that data controllers and data processors have to take when handling your personal data, and is upheld by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which is an independent data protection watchdog. 

A data controller decides how and why they use your data, and a data processor processes this data on their behalf. If they fail to comply with this legislation, this is known as wrongful conduct. 

A personal data breach is defined by the ICO as a security incident that compromises the availability, integrity, or confidentiality of your personal data. In order to make a personal data breach claim, you must be able to prove that:

• The breach was caused by wrongful conduct
• It affected your personal data
• You suffered emotional and/or financial harm as a result

If you think you may be eligible to claim medical data breach compensation, please contact an advisor. They could assess your case and help you get started with your claim. They can also give guidance on the medical data breach compensation amount that could be appropriate for your claim.

Medical Data – Examples Of What Could Be Held

The ICO defines personal data as any information that identifies you and could include your:

• Name
• Address
• Email address
• IP address.

Some types of personal data are regarded as more sensitive and therefore require additional protection. We refer to this type of information as special category data. For example, your:

• Medical data
• Racial or ethnic origin
• Sexual orientation
• Religious beliefs.

Since medical data is more sensitive, healthcare providers should ensure that it is protected from any potential situation where a data breach may occur. If a breach does occur and you suffer harm as a result, you may be able to claim medical data breach compensation.

Speak to our advisors for free legal advice. They can also discuss questions about the information that might be held on you as well as how to claim lost medical records compensation in the UK.

How Could A Data Protection Breach Of My Medical Records Happen?

There are many ways in which a medical data breach could occur. For example, a data breach could occur due to a cyber incident or a non-cyber incident such as human error.

Some examples of incidents that could breach your medical data include:

• Your medical data could be posted, faxed or emailed to the incorrect recipient.
• A hospital could fail to properly lock away and secure your medical files, which could result in an unauthorised person stealing them.
• Your GP surgery did not update its cybersecurity measures. This could result in your personal data being accessed and stolen during a cyberattack.
• A GP receptionist could verbally disclose your personal data over the phone to an unauthorised person without a lawful basis for doing so.

You must remember to be eligible to make a claim for medical data breach compensation, your personal data, such as your medical data, must have been breached due to an organisation’s failings. As a result of this, you must have also suffered financial loss or psychological harm.

To check whether you may have a valid personal data breach claim, you can contact a member of our advisory team.

What Evidence Do I Need To Claim Medical Data Breach Compensation?

When making a personal data breach claim, it’s important to make sure that you have enough evidence to back up your case. This should be able to prove how the breach occurred, who was responsible, and how it affected you. 

Some examples of evidence that you could use to help support your medical data breach compensation claim include:

• Correspondence with the ICO: Communication with the ICO, such as the results of an investigation or complaint, could be used to help back up your claim.

• Medical records: Your medical records can offer further insight into how the data breach has affected you psychologically and what kind of treatment you will need.

• Financial records: If you suffered any financial losses, documents such as bank statements or credit reports can be used to illustrate how the breach has harmed you financially.

• A letter of notification: If you receive a letter or email from the organisation at fault notifying you of the breach, this can also be used as evidence in your claim.

Should you choose to work with a solicitor on your compensation claim, they could help you collect evidence and further strengthen your claim. Get in touch with our friendly advisors today to find out if one of our No Win No Fee data breach solicitors could help you.

Medical Data Breach Compensation Payouts

If you make a successful medical data breach compensation claim, your award could contain up to two heads. The first is non-material damage compensation. Non-material damage refers to the psychological harm you suffered as a result of the data breach.

For example, a personal data breach could cause depression, anxiety, and general emotional distress. Alongside causing psychological injuries, a breach could also exacerbate an existing psychological condition, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Those who value this head of your claim may get help from the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG). This document provides a list of injuries and illnesses, including psychological injuries, alongside corresponding compensation guidelines. You can find some examples in the table below, but please note that the first entry has not been taken from the JCG and that none of these figures are guaranteed.

Guideline Compensation Brackets

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Psychological/Psychiatric Injury	Compensation Bracket	Level of Severity
Severe psychological harm as well as financial costs and losses.	Up to £150,000+	A combination of severe psychological injury and financial costs such as those associated with financial theft or identity fraud.
Psychological (General) Injuries (a)	£54,830 to £115,730	Severe – All areas of the person’s life are impacted, and the prognosis is not good.
Psychological (General) Injuries (b)	£19,070 to £54,830	Moderately severe – Significant problems but with a better prognosis.
Psychological (General) Injuries (c)	£5,860 to £19,070	Moderate – Already some recovery, and a good prognosis.
Psychological (General) Injuries (d)	£1,540 to £5,860	Less severe – would consider the length of disability and any ongoing issues.
Cases involving post-traumatic stress injuries/PTSD (a)	£59,860 to £100,670	Severe – The injured party would not be able to function anywhere near normally, and will not likely be able to work.
Cases involving post-traumatic stress injuries/PTSD (b)	£23,150 to £59,860	Moderately severe – Significant problems with the above but a better prognosis.
Cases involving post-traumatic stress injuries/PTSD (c)	£8,180 to £23,150	Moderate – Largely recovered. Any continuing issues will not be too disabling.
Cases involving post-traumatic stress injuries/PTSD (d)	£3,950 to £8,180	Less severe – Virtually full recovery within around 1-2 years.

Material Damage Compensation

The second head of claim that you could receive is known as material damage compensation. Material damage refers to the financial losses you endure as a result of the personal data breach. 

For example, if you needed to take time off work to recover from a psychological injury caused by the breach, this could cause you to lose out on pay. Under material damage compensation, you could claim back these lost earnings. 

Similarly, if the breach compromised your financial information, and this led to criminals stealing from your accounts, material damage compensation could help you recoup these losses. 

To learn more about claiming compensation after a personal data breach, get in touch with our team today. Or, read on to find out how one of our No Win No Fee solicitors could help you.

Claim Medical Data Breach Compensation With A No Win No Fee Solicitor

If you have valid grounds to claim medical data breach compensation, you could consider getting support from a solicitor. If you speak to our advisors about your case, they may connect you with our panel of No Win No Fee data breach solicitors.

The No Win No Fee solicitors on our panel can support data breach claims under a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). If you claim under this agreement, you won’t have to pay upfront or ongoing fees to your solicitor for their service. Also, you won’t need to pay your solicitor for their work if your claim proves unsuccessful.

If your claim is a success, then the solicitor who supported you can take what’s commonly called a success fee. This usually means your solicitor takes a legally capped percentage taken from the compensation awarded to you.

To learn more about No Win No Fee solicitors or other aspects of claiming, such as the medical data breach compensation amount you may receive, please contact our advisors for free today. You can reach our team by:

• Calling us on 0800 073 8801
• Filling in our online contact form
• Messaging us through our 24/7 live chat feature

Related Guides To Claiming Medical Information Data Breach Compensation

• NSCS Guide To Data Breaches: The NSCS provides guidance to individuals and families in regards to data breaches. It shows people what action they could take if they believe they may have been affected by such a breach.
• Cyber Security Survey: The government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey for 2020 can be found here. It might make interesting reading for you as it explains how common data security breaches are amongst organisations.
• Data Protection Explained: The government has created a guide to data protection, which you can access here.
• Claims For Stress-Related Incidents: One of the consequences of a data breach could be stress, and the data breach could’ve been caused by your employer. This guide explains stress in more detail and gives some insight into claiming compensation for personal injuries.
• Have You Suffered Data Breach Anxiety?: Anxiety could be something you suffer as a result of a data breach. We have created a handy guide that explores claiming for anxiety in more detail. The example included is anxiety following a car accident.
• Will Suing Your Employer Cause You Problems?: If your employer has breached your data, you may worry about making a claim for compensation. This guide explores such worries and explains the reasons an employee need not fear taking action against an employer.

Thank you for reading our guide to claiming following a medical information data breach. Hopefully now you’ll know whether you could be eligible to claim medical data breach compensation. If you have further questions about a healthcare data breach, do not hesitate to get in touch.