Re: Again.....Taking the piss now.
While I can see the sentiment of your comment, I think you have missed the target here.
The Working Time Directive is a toothless wonder that limits working hours for over 18s to 48 hours and unpaid overtime that you volunteer for does not count as work under the Directive.
I have some experience of "the usual Goverment IT tendering process" and while there are indeed instances of bidders "skimping on non essentials", there should be safeguards in place to identify these. I always find it curious that when it all goes wrong people fall so easily for the "it was the nasty supplier wot done it" excuse. It's as though being crap at the job was a valid excuse.
Perhaps the poor harassed member of staff should tell the mamanger that the data protection procedures are not conducive to getting the report finished by Monday. Then come up with some suggestions about how these procedures may be improved.
The key points here remain:
Why was sensitive data relating to 600 maternity patients taken *HOME* in the first place. This, in itself, is more alarming that the medium used to transport it.?
Why were ward lists "contained the name, date of birth, diagnosis, treatment plan and test results for 122 patients." (the paper files mentioned in the article) allowed to be taken out of the hospital by a junior doctor?
To me, these just sound like poor procedures, poor implementation and poor or non existent enforcement for which both management and staff share responsibility.