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		</div><p>An investigation has been launched after an NHS clinic mistakenly revealed the identity of almost 800 patients who had attended HIV services.</p>
<p>The 56 Dean Street clinic in London’s Soho sent out a newsletter to patients on a group email, rather than to individuals.</p>
<p>A spokesman for the sexual health clinic, which is part of the Chelsea and Westminster NHS trust, said the mistake was caused by “human error”.</p>
<p>The clinic and others in the trust’s network make up Europe’s biggest sexual health service.</p>
<p>The error means patients who have attended HIV clinics at Dean Street were able to read the names and email addresses of other patients.</p>
<p>The spokesman said: “We can confirm that due to an administrative error, a newsletter about services at 56 Dean Street was sent to an email group rather than individual recipients.</p>
<p>“We have immediately contacted all the email recipients to inform them of the error and apologise.”</p>
<p>Elliot Herman, 38, from London, told the Guardian the email contained the names of friends who had never disclosed their HIV status to him before.</p>
<p>“It’s not difficult to put those names into Facebook and bring up their profiles and personal details,” he said.</p>
<p>He said if his details were on the list he would “feel angry and disappointed at the clinic”.</p>
<p>The spokesman for the clinic said it was not accurate to say all the patients on the list were HIV positive.</p>
<p>The newsletter was sent to about 780 patients who had signed up to the clinic’s OptionE service, which lets people book appointments and receive test results by email.</p>
<p>An internal investigation into what happened has been launched.</p>
<p>According to the Guardian, an email apology from Alan McOwan, Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust’s director for sexual health, was sent to patients after the breach on Tuesday.</p>
<p>It said: “I’m writing to apologise to you. This morning at around 11.30am we sent you the latest edition of OptionE newsletter.</p>
<p>“This is normally sent to individuals on an individual basis but unfortunately we sent out today’s email to a group of email addresses. We apologise for this error.</p>
<p>“We recalled/deleted the email as soon as we realised what had happened. If it is still in your inbox please delete it immediately.</p>
<p>“Clearly this is completely unacceptable. We are urgently investigating how this has happened and I promise you that we will take steps to ensure it never happens again. We will send you the outcome of the investigation.”</p>
<p>The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) can levy fines of thousands of pounds for significant data breaches.</p>
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