A Guide On Hospital Data Breach Claims

When your personal data has been breached, it can leave you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated. It can be particularly stressful when a hospital suffers a data breach, given the personal information such facilities routinely handle. While hospital data breach claims can’t change what happened, they can help those affected find closure, as our guide will show.

Key Takeaways

• 19% of data breaches reported in the first quarter of 2025 related to the health sector
• A hospital data breach can compromise information concerning contact details, health records, and appointment dates
• The breach of your personal and medical data can cause both financial and psychological harm
• In 2024, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data regulator, published further guidance for the health and social care sectors

If you’re unsure about your next steps or the process of claiming compensation, please don’t hesitate to contact our advisory team. There are no obligations to proceed with a claim, so why not get in touch today via the following options:

• Call us on 0161 509 2856
• Complete our online contact form
• Chat live with an advisor using the pop-up in the corner

Jump To A Section

1. Can I Claim Compensation For A Hospital Data Breach?
2. How Much Compensation Can Be Awarded For Hospital Data Breach Claims?
3. What Are Some Common Hospital Data Breach Causes?
4. What Personal Data Will A Hospital Hold?
5. Steps To Take After A Hospital Data Breach
6. No Win No Fee Hospital Data Breach Claims
7. Learn More

Can I Claim Compensation For A Hospital Data Breach?

You can claim compensation for a hospital data breach if you can show that it compromised your personal information, leading to financial and/or mental harm. To summarise this:

• A hospital will have failed to uphold its obligations under data protection laws
• This led to your personal data being compromised
• As a result, you suffered harm, mentally and/or financially

Those aforementioned laws are the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 1980. The UK GDPR, in particular, outlines several key principles concerning the handling of personal data (we define personal data in a later section):

• In a way that is transparent, fair and lawful
• Minimally
• With purpose limitation
• Accurately
• With integrity and confidentiality
• Accountably

It is these principles which should be at the forefront of how any organisation, including those involved in healthcare, processes personal data.

You can talk to our helpful advisors at any time to find out whether you have an eligible data breach claim. They can also discuss any queries you might have about data protection laws themselves.

How Much Compensation Can Be Awarded For Hospital Data Breach Claims?

The amount of compensation that can be awarded for hospital data breach claims depends on the specifics of the monetary and psychological harm. A data breach is an extremely stressful situation that can cause conditions like anxiety or depression. This impact is referred to as non-material damage in a data breach claim. 

When assessing this part of the compensation, solicitors may use the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) to inform their calculations. This document is useful for this, as it provides compensation guideline brackets for various forms of harm. We have included some of these brackets in a list below.

When reading our list, please take note that compensation is highly individualised. Therefore, none of the brackets should be seen as a guarantee of compensation for your specific hospital data breach claim. The top bullet point also isn’t sourced from the JCG, as it is a combined figure for both financial and psychological harm:

• Multiple types of severe psychological harm with financial impact, such as lost earnings – Up to £500,000+
• Severe psychiatric damage with a very poor prognosis – £66,920 to £141,240
• Moderately severe psychiatric damage with a better prognosis, albeit with significant problems related to issues like the ability to cope with life – £23,270 to £66,920
• Moderate psychiatric damage where claimant will have seen marked improvement with a good prognosis –  £7,150 to £23,270
• Less severe psychiatric damage, in which the award will consider the impact on day-to-day life and sleep – £1,880 to £7,150
• Severe PTSD with permanent effects that leave all areas of life badly affected – £73,050 to £122,850
• Moderately severe PTSD where a claimant will likely experience significant disability for the foreseeable future – £28,250 to £73,050
• Moderate PTSD, where claimants will have mostly recovered, and continuing effects will not be deemed grossly disabling – £9,980 to £28,250
• Less severe PTSD from which a virtually full recovery is made within 1 to 2 years, with only minor symptoms persisting – £4,820 to £9,980

Can Hospital Data Breach Compensation Cover Material Damage?

As mentioned above, hospital data breach compensation can cover material damage if the incident has financially impacted you. That means you may be able to recover the following financial costs, should they apply:

• Lost earnings: It is common to require time off work while suffering from mental distress
• The cost of therapy or counselling: You may need professional help in order to cope with any psychological harm
• Relocation expenses: Data breaches can lead to worries about personal safety, especially if a home address is compromised.
• Security: Even if you don’t move, you may still have to pay out-of-pocket for additional home security.

For a more personalised discussion of compensation, speak to an advisor and get a no-obligation assessment of your case.

What Are Some Common Hospital Data Breach Causes?

Some of the most common causes of hospital data breaches include hacks, letters being sent to the wrong address, and the loss of medical records. With this in mind, you might be able to claim in the following scenarios:

• A physical copy of your medical records are lost by a doctor when they leave your files unattended in a hospital cafe. Not knowing where this information is causes you to suffer from anxiety.
• A hospital receptionist sends a letter confirming an upcoming appointment. However, they send this to the wrong postal address, despite you giving them the correct information. The breach of your personal data leads to your post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) worsening significantly.
• The hospital that you visit doesn’t regularly update its systems, resulting in a cyberattack that leads to your personal data being disclosed online. As a result, you experience severe depression and have to pay for extra home security.

To share your own experience or find out more about the hospital data breach claims process, please get in touch with our advisory team today.

What Personal Data Will A Hospital Hold?

By the nature of its role, a hospital will hold a wide range of personal data, including NHS numbers, home addresses, and contact details. Additionally, hospitals routinely handle more sensitive information, termed special category data, that requires extra protection under UK GDPR. For hospitals, that might relate to:

• Ethnic or racial origin
• Your religion
• Genetic and biometric data
• Sexual orientation or sex life
• Health records, including information about prescriptions, test results, and allergies
• The care you are receiving or need

Our enquiries team are available 24/7 and here to answer any questions you might have about personal data.

Steps To Take After A Hospital Data Breach

After a hospital data breach, your first steps should be to collect evidence of what happened and how you have been affected. This proof might include:

• A copy of your medical records, including any diagnosis of anxiety or another psychological condition
• Bank statements and receipts to prove the financial impact
• A copy of your ICO report, if you decided to make one
• A notification letter (sometimes a hospital will contact you to confirm that your data was breached, and how)

If you’re at all uncertain about the evidence required for hospital data breach claims, please don’t worry. Our advisors are here to help and will be happy to explain how one of our solicitors can assist with obtaining proof for your claim.

No Win No Fee Hospital Data Breach Claims

Our solicitors have helped clients across the country navigate their No Win No Fee hospital data breach claims. There are many benefits to claiming on No Win No Fee terms, particularly when it comes to solicitor fees.

They work under something called a Conditional Fee Agreement (CFA). It is easy to get bogged down in jargon, but a CFA simply means that there is no need to pay a solicitor’s service fee:

• Before the start of the data breach claim
• While the case is underway
• If you do not receive hospital data breach compensation

However, there is a success fee to pay to your solicitor if you win compensation. This is taken as a percentage of the compensation, but a cap is in place to ensure you keep the majority of what you get.

You may be wondering how our solicitors help claimants along the process. They have decades of combined experience in handling data breach claims, giving them the expertise needed to provide services like the following:

• Assistance with the collection of evidence that will prove the breach and its impact
• Explaining key aspects of the data breach claims process and advising you on decisions
• Communicating with the hospital’s representatives on your behalf
• Working hard to secure a settlement that reflects the extent to which you’ve been affected by a hospital data breach

Contact Our Team Of Advisors

You can contact our team of advisors at any time. All their advice is as straightforward as can be and tailored to your specific needs, at no charge to you:

• Call us on 0161 509 2856
• Complete our online contact form
• Chat live with an advisor using the pop-up in the corner

Learn More

Visit our other guides on:

• Breach of confidentiality claims
• Landlord data breach claims
• What happens after an accidental data breach by an employer

External resources:

• Follow the data breach guidance for individuals and families provided by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
• Find out how to object to the use of your data, as outlined by the ICO
• Read the NHS’s information on personal data breaches and related incidents

Thank you for reading this guide on hospital data breach claims.