Frederikshavn ends home-care contract, affecting 68 residents

Frederikshavn Municipality has terminated its contract with private provider Nii’s Hjemmepleje after staff accessed sensitive personal data that was not relevant to their work, DR reports. The change affects 68 residents, who will initially receive care from the municipality’s own home-care service.

The municipality discovered that Nii’s Hjemmepleje employees had viewed “particularly critical, sensitive personal data”, including information about medication and prescriptions, Mayor Jon Andersen said.

The company was excluded from the municipality’s record system, which it used to access information about residents. Nii’s Hjemmepleje then told the municipality that it would go on strike from 10 a.m., saying it could not carry out its work without access to the system.

A few hours after the work stoppage began, the municipality announced that it was ending the contract. Andersen said the decision was necessary to protect residents and their data because the company was not carrying out the tasks set out in its contract.

The municipality’s own home-care staff will take over care for the 68 residents for now. Andersen said the municipality would review the situation on Monday and expected to draw up a more permanent plan next week. DR said it had been unable to get a comment from Nii’s Hjemmepleje.

Andersen said the municipality restricted access to the system in part because of the recent leak of many personal identification numbers in a separate case.