The Canterbury District Health Board (DHB) has apologised after a coding error in a local medical appointment system potentially allowed hundreds of individuals making appointments to view the details of others.
Early information says the details of 716 individuals who had registered with the system were potentially able to be viewed, the Ministry of Health said today in a statement.
The details included name, gender, age, and NHI number but no personal health information.
The DHB and Ministry have thanked "a member of the public with strong technical skills" who made the discovery, and the system was taken down last night after being available for use from 8am on Friday.
"Both the Ministry and DHB are thanking a member of the public with strong technical skills for the prompt alert after they detected a security vulnerability in the code and then were able to view contact details of those who had already booked," the Ministry of Health said.
The system will stay shut down until the issue has been resolved and the system thoroughly tested.
"All health services take the privacy of individuals very seriously," Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.
"It is very unfortunate this has occurred and the Ministry and DHB have taken immediate steps to address the issue.
"The DHB will be contacting those affected, apologising directly and informing them of the actions now being taken."
An investigation is now underway which will provide more detailed information.
The issue is limited to the Canterbury DHB at this stage, and to household members of frontline border workers invited to make appointments to be vaccinated, the health ministry said.
The Ministry said there is "no evidence of any malicious breach, access to this information or sharing of it further and the DHB is investigating further".
Individuals with questions or concerns about the booking system coding error have been urged to contact Healthline on 0800 358 5453
A national booking system is currently being developed and will be available in May.
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