Ontario is investigating a possible data breach that may have exposed the personal information of 200,000 home care patients, Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Friday.
Ontario Medical Supply, a vendor for Ontario Health atHome, first reported a system outage. It later confirmed that a cyberattack caused the disruption. Ontario Health atHome then announced the potential breach.
The agency stated that health records may have been compromised, including patient names, contact details, and supply orders.
“We are working with the Information and Privacy Commissioner to notify those affected as quickly as possible,” the agency said in a statement. “
Throughout this process, we are committed to ensuring patients receive their medical supplies and equipment without delay, while minimizing any further privacy or security risks.”
However, the agency has not disclosed when the outage occurred or when it contacted the commissioner.
Liberal health critic Adil Shamji brought the breach to public attention on Friday. He said it occurred in mid-March and could impact nearly one-third of Ontario’s home care patients.
“I remain seriously concerned that this situation poses an urgent and clear threat to patients,” Shamji said.
“People deserve to know their sensitive health data was compromised, and that no one officially disclosed it.”
He did not say how he became aware of the breach. However, he asked the Information and Privacy Commissioner to investigate.
Shamji wrote to Commissioner Patricia Kosseim last week and followed up again on Friday.
Kosseim replied the same day, confirming her office had received a breach report that matched Shamji’s timeline and description.
Jones said Ontario Health atHome is still checking whether anyone accessed or took personal data.
“Ontario Health and Ontario Health atHome will directly notify patients if their information was accessed or misused,” she said.
Premier Doug Ford said the province will identify what went wrong and why officials weren’t informed earlier. He said the matter hits close to home.
In 2014, someone accessed medical records belonging to both him and his late brother, Rob Ford.
“Anyone who breaches health-care records should be fired immediately,” Ford said.
This is the second major controversy involving Ontario Health atHome in less than a year. Last fall, the agency faced severe delays and shortages in home and palliative care services.
At that time, it had just implemented new delivery contracts for medical supplies.
