By Francesca Mold, health reporter
Health authorities have stepped in to ensure abortion files found in an abandoned hospital are secure.
Files giving the names and addresses of women who had abortions at Rawhiti Hospital in 1995 were discovered in a room at the back of the Mt Eden building.
The room had been padlocked but was broken into over the weekend.
The secretary for the trust which ran the hospital until last year told the Heraldon Monday that the files would be destroyed.
This would have breached 1996 health regulations which demand patient records be held in a secure place for at least 10 years.
The Ministry of Health yesterday said it had met Rawhiti Trust chairman Dr Andrew Mackintosh to discuss the incident. Dr Mackintosh has not returned several calls from the Herald in the past two days.
The Director-General of Health, Dr Karen Poutasi, said that from discussions with Dr Mackintosh, it appeared the files had been left in the room through an oversight. She said the ministry was continuing talks with Dr Mackintosh about long-term storage of the files.
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