In a development that is certain to lead to a hardening of stance on the outsourcing industry by the western world, investigations
conducted by a British TV channel have come up with the stunning revelation that confidential medical records sent to India for computerisation are being offered for sale, triggering heightened concerns about breach of data security here.

The revelation has forced police of the two countries to join hands to launch an official investigation into the data pilferage of the records stored by the Indian BPOs. If found true, the allegations could hit the flourishing BPO sector in India hard, fuelling doubts about their integrity and efficiency.

There is already a substantial public opinion building in the western world about the viability of outsourcing jobs to the developing countries, primarily India. In the run-up to the presidential election in the US, Barack Obama had advocated lifting of tax breaks to the American companies who ship jobs abroad.
The health records-for-sale investigation is scheduled to be broadcast on ITV on its Tonight programme on Monday.

Sall Anne Poole, head of investigations at the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), confirmed that an official probe had been launched to get to the bottom of things. “We are very concerned that private patients’ medical records are on sale in India. The ICO will establish the full facts and will then decide what action, if any, needs to be taken. Medical records are sensitive personal information and must be held securely,” she said.

The modus-operandi employed to procure the records was simple. Chris Rogers, the programme’s presenter, contacted two Indian salesmen through an internet chat room, and posed as a marketing executive keen on buying medical records to sell insurance and medicines.

Rogers bought 116 files with detailed medical records of British patients , from the two salesmen, whom the programme named as Jayesh Bagchandnani and Kunal Gargatti, the Daily Mail, a prominent British tabloid, reported on Sunday.

Bagchandnani reportedly said they came from staff at an Indian ‘transcription’ centre where medical records are computerised. Bagchandnani told Rogers: “We can do really good business with these leads. These leads will give you diagnose, entire diagnose of all the India’s top 10 BPO customers, what the customer is facing. There are 17 teams or you can say team managers. The floor managers, they are working as freelancers for me and I am telling them to pull the data for me. They work for me.”

Researchers for the programme then met Gargatti, in Mumbai. “You have the doctor’s name, doctor’s address, doctor’s phone number. Each and every thing here. I have 30,000 files to give you today, right now. I’ve around 140 diseases here. You just tell me which disease you’re looking out for — I can give you anything ,” he told them.

The files procured were of patients of London Clinic, one of Britain’s top private hospitals. Several hospitals in the National Health Service have also outsourced their transcription to India, sparking concern over data safety following the latest investigation.

The London Clinic said it dealt with its own files internally and did not send them to private companies. But it advised a group of consultants
to use a specialist Buckingham-based IT company, DGL Information Technologies UK, with which the clinic has a contract, to help turn paper records into computerised files.

DGL itself did not handle the records but recommended that the doctors use a document-scanning service provided by a company it has a contract with, Scanning And Data Solutions, which operates from Hertfordshire.

But Scanning And Data Solutions then sub-contracted further work on the files to a company in Pune. Scanning And Data Solutions admitted it had sent thousands of medical records to India over the past two years and said it ‘had no reason to disbelieve’ that it had scanned the records obtained by ITV in India.

It has now suspended its operations there and requested that its partners delete all the information they hold. It has told both Hertfordshire Police and the Indian police of the theft.

DATA PILFERAGE

The revelation has forced police of the two countries to launch an investigation into the data pilferage of the records stored by the Indian BPOs ‘We are concerned that private patients’ medical records are on sale in India.

The ICO will establish the full facts and will then decide what action, if any, needs to be taken. Medical records are sensitive personal information and must be held securely,’ Poole said There is a substantial public opinion building in the western world against outsourcing

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Politics/Nation/Medical-records-sent-for-computerisation-to-India-up-for-sale/articleshow/5137528.cms?curpg=1

Hamilton Sundstrand wants to cut 30 more hourly jobs and farm out work now done at its Windsor Locks headquarters to a subcontractor, according to Mark Hebert, president of Machinists union Local 743.

Company officials notified the union that they plan to outsource to an unnamed third party work on flight safety hardware that goes into the components Hamilton sells to Boeing and other aircraft makers, Hebert said.

Union and company officials today start a 45-day “meet and confer” process to discuss ways to stop the planned cuts or find ways to place the affected workers in other jobs, he said.

Company officials say the work “is not their ‘core’ work at the Windsor locks plant,” Hebert said. “We believe that this work is essentially a part of our core work because it the first step of our assembly and test process for not only the Boeing 787 program but for many other flight safety aerospace assemblies.

The company would lose control of the parts, Hebert said, adding: “Keeping control of critical hardware is a flight safety issue that should be of concern for the flying public.”

If the jobs are eliminated, Hebert said, the union would “make every effort to place those displaced employees in another department.”

Company spokesman Dan Coulom said that the move is necessary, because Hamilton “continues to feel the effects of the economic downturn.” To remain competitive, the company “must continue to reduce cost to position ourselves for future growth when the economy rebounds,” Coulom said.

The job cuts would take place in the second quarter of 2010, he said.

“Outsourcing a portion of our materials logistics function in Windsor Locks allows us to focus on our core work,” he said, which Coulom characterized as “primarily assembling and testing” aerospace parts and equipment.

The work would go to a supplier or suppliers that specialize in these products, likely one in Connecticut or nearby, he said.

Hamilton laid off 19 hourly workers at its Windsor Locks headquarters on Sept. 29. Days later, 10 hourly workers accepted a buyout package.

Those job cuts involved workers in the assembly and test group of the mechanical engines systems and in air management systems, where workers make air conditioning systems for aircraft. Some laid-off employees had worked for the company for as long as 22 years, Hebert said, adding the cuts left the union with 1,015 people in its bargaining unit.

Hamilton on Sept. 2 laid off 45 salaried employees throughout the company’s U.S. operations, 12 of those in Windsor Locks.

At the time of that layoff, Coulom attributed the cuts to “the global economic crisis and poor market conditions.” Affected workers received severance, outplacement services, and continued access to a scholar program that subsidizes employees’ education.

The pending 30 additional hourly layoffs would bring to 553 the total number of jobs lost at Hamilton this year, both salaried and hourly employees combined, through a combination of layoffs and buyouts.

Source: http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news10625.html