YORK Hospital managers admit they are appalled that a document containing confidential information about 19 seriously ill patients was found lying on a pavement.

So they should be. The document, discovered by a member of the public nearly two miles away from the hospital, contained the patients’ names, ages and personal medical histories.

One patient is listed as having HIV and syphilis. Others had conditions such as breast cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease and multiple sclerosis.

HIV and AIDS charity the Terence Higgins Trust has described the breach of confidentiality as “totally unacceptable”.

The charity’s deputy chief executive, Paul Ward, said: “For anyone with HIV who is facing stigma, having personal information about their health being inadvertently made public is very worrying. People place their trust and faith in hospitals. If there has been a failing we ask York Hospital to redouble its efforts to make sure it is able to ensure full confidentiality in future.”

We entirely agree. Getting it right all the time in an organisation as complex as a hospital is not easy. On one level, this was a simple mistake. It did not put anyone’s life at risk.

But allowing private and personal information like this about patients to be carelessly left lying around for anybody to see is a serious breach of the hospital’s duty to its patients.

This incident comes less than a week after The Press revealed that surgeons mistakenly operated on a teenage boy’s wrong finger.

An internal inquiry was held into that case, and hospital bosses pledged to do everything possible to reduce the potential for similar mistakes in future.

Now a full investigation has been launched in this latest case.

Appropriate action would be taken once the investigation had been completed, hospital deputy chief executive Mike Proctor said. “Personal accountabilities and responsibilities have been reinforced with all staff following this incident.”

We are glad that the hospital is acting promptly. Mistakes such as this can only damage patients’ confidence.