Queensland Health is investigating how a large parcel of patients’ medical records came to be left on the ground outside one of Brisbane’s busiest hospitals.

The documents were supposed to be picked up by a contractor from the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (RBWH) and taken to a destruction facility, but they were instead found by a staff member outside the Herston hospital last Thursday.

The documents were taken from an outpatient department and included patients’ names and other information.

A spokeswoman for Metro North Hospital and Health Service said an investigation was under way.

“The private contractor and RBWH are both reviewing their processes to ensure secure documents are fully protected,” she said.

“We are working closely with the contractor to investigate how these documents were unsecured and dislodged near the hospital.

“We are examining the documents to ascertain the level of confidential information they contain.

“We will contact affected parties if required.”

LNP leader Deb Frecklington said it was a major breach of trust.

“The fact that Labor have tried to cover this up for almost a week and didn’t come clean about losing these sensitive medical records is simply not good enough,” she said.

“Patients should have been contacted as a first priority, but instead all Labor have done is try to cover up this major fail.”

–ABC