Class action lawsuit over cannabis data breach receives ‘dozens’ of inquiries: lawyer

Yolande Cole - thegrowthop.com Posted 5 years ago
image

Since filing a proposed class action lawsuit against Natural Health Services Ltd. and parent company Sunniva Inc., law firm Diamond and Diamond has received “dozens” of inquiries.

Darryl Singer, lead counsel on the lawsuit, said his office started to get calls from people concerned about a data breach of Natural Health Services patient information immediately after the lawsuit was announced last week.

“Everybody’s concerns are fairly similar, and at the end of the day, everybody that’s called us is quite happy to be part of the class action,” Singer said.

Natural Health Services, which operates seven clinics in Canada for patients seeking medical cannabis, identified there was a data breach in their electronic medical record system between Dec. 4, 2018 and Jan. 7, 2019. During that time period, records containing personal health information of about 34,000 patients were accessed without authorization, Sunniva said last week. The breach did not involve any financial, credit card or social insurance number information.

Related

  • Electronic data breach sees medical cannabis users’ personal information compromised

“NHS has notified the patients whose data was accessed, provided details about the breach and its investigation to date, and guidance for other steps that patients can take to protect themselves,” Sunniva said in a news release.

Dr. Mark Kimmins, president of NHS, said the company is taking the situation “very seriously” and taking “the necessary steps to prevent a situation like this from happening again.”

“In addition, we are working with law enforcement and the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta to investigate this matter,” he said.

Singer said the lawsuit is structured as a national class action, so the Toronto law firm is taking clients from across the country.

“A health services provider, which is what this company is, has an obligation to safeguard the most sensitive, personal health information of its patients, and that’s set out in legislation,” Singer said.

Information disclosed as part of the breach includes diagnostic results, health-care numbers, addresses, phone numbers and medical information such as referrals and completed questionnaires, according to Diamond and Diamond Lawyers.

Natural Health Services and Sunniva have not yet filed a statement of defence.