Outrage as thousands of NHS patients’ medical records are dumped in town centre

Torn medical records that had been sent to a recycling centre were found floating around a city centre – after bales of paper were used to weigh down scaffolding.

Shoppers were left ‘disgusted’ by the sight of patients’ medical information and personal data, including operations and addresses, on display in Milton Keynes.

Paper had been pressed into around 40 blocks and placed onto scaffolding to act as ballast for the sculpture at the annual Festival of Urban Living, The Sun reports.

Aiden Birch, 36, said: ‘I could see prescription forms and there were clear names and addresses and details of surgery. 

‘It is disgusting. You can see people’s private information.’

The four-storey, scaffold structure was filled with the blocks of recycled paper to help keep it steady ahead of the sculpture’s unveiling on September 26.

Organisers contacted CS recycling in Hertfordshire after the sculpture’s designers stated the art work, called Utopia Station, needed to be protected from winds.

And the recycling company responded by sending cut and part-shredded paper that had been pressed tightly into blocks.  

But any loose paper that had been in the blocks could be seen by shoppers as it was blown by the wind around the streets – prompting fears of possible identity fraud. 

CS Recycling marketing manager Emma Curtis said the firm ‘solely organised the recycling of the bales, not the destruction of the data contained within the bales’.

Milton Keynes council were ‘appalled’ by the mistake, and said: ‘We immediately covered the bales and are arranging for their removal. 

‘We’ve asked the supplier of the bales to investigate, as it falls far short of our expectations.’