London Clinic Reveals HIV Status of 800 Patients In Major Newsletter Blunder

In a huge privacy blunder, a sexual health clinic in London revealed the names and email addresses of 780 HIV patients in a newsletter.

The 56 Dean Street clinic, run by the Chelsea and Westminster NHS trust, has apologised for the email, saying it has launched an investigation into how the snafu occurred.

The email was sent on Tuesday to all of the clinic’s HIV positive patients - but each recipient’s name and email address was left in the ‘to’ field rather than being hidden.

Making matters worse, the clinic then tried to use the email recall feature found in Microsoft Office - which highlighted the blunder by sending a second email.

According to Beyond Positive, a third email was then sent by Dr Alan McOwan, apologising and promising that the clinic was “urgently investigating” what had happened.

(Image: Mikko Stig / Rex Shutterstock)