The British National Health Service has admitted losing hundreds of thousands of patient records according to a government-wide data security review.
The Department of Health says there is no evidence that the data has fallen into the wrong hands. It follows losses of millions of child benefit claimant and driver details.
One of the breaches was thought to involve the loss of names and addresses of 160,000 children by City and Hackney Primary Care Trust, after a disc failed to arrive at an east London hospital.
Another, lost by Gloucester Partnership Foundation Trust, consisted of archive records relating to patients treated 40 years ago - none of whom is still alive. The details of what data has been lost by the other trusts have not been disclosed.
Joyce Robins, from the patient support group Patient Care, said: "Every week we hear of a new scandal. Health records can have anything from your ex-directory phone number to your HIV status.
"I think it's the tip of the iceberg, actually, because there's such carelessness within the NHS and it's always impossible to hold anyone to account and find out who's actually done anything."
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