The Director of the Spanish Data Protection Agency requested, within his powers, the opening of inspection actions before the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia (in what successive, Ministry of Health), in view of the information published in the media dated 04/25/2008 and 04/30/2008, relating to the appearance of health cards in a container, which correspond to users of healthcare centers. health of Lorca, Aledo and Totana. In these publications, it is indicated that hundreds of health cards were found in a rubble container, which belongs to users of several health centers in the municipalities of Lorca, Totana, and Aledo, included in Health Area III. 

Approximately, In the summer of 2007, the Single Management of the Lorca Area was established (previously it was Primary Care Management) and the person in charge of the Health Card Unit was changed. It was then considered that it was necessary to hire a company to destroy the expired cards since the paper shredder did not seem suitable for this purpose. With these intentions, expired cards began to be stored on the fifth floor of the building, with due security measures, until they reached a sufficient volume for them to be removed by the company. However, some remodeling works on the aforementioned floor, together with others on the elevator, led to the cleaning of some rooms and the removal of expired material. Just the confusion that the remodeling could cause, along with some human error, explains that the circuit was not followed properly and that one of the boxes of cards pending destruction ended up in the construction container along with other disposable materials. With effect from 06/1/08, the Murcian Health Service signed a contract with the company Destruction and Data Protection for the treatment and destruction of the health cards of the health centers dependent on Health Area III of Lorca. It is requested: 

1. Who is the competent body to resolve this? 

2. What principles has the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs violated? 

3. What should the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs allege for its defense? 

4. How should the offense committed be classified? 

5. What resources can the body to which the resolution has been filed be able to file?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

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