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The laptop was stolen from the anticoagulation clinic in the Outpatient Department at Russells Hall Hospital on 8 January 2008.

The hospital has begun issuing letters to those affected explaining the situation and apologising for the incident. It has also notified the police who are investigating.

The Dudley Group of Hospitals Trust says data will be difficult to access as "the database is password and login protected and a separate Trust login and password is required to operate

"Clearly this is a serious issue," says Paul Farenden, chief executive of Dudley Group of Hospitals NHS Trust. "We take precautions to try to protect all the IT equipment in our hospitals from theft, but given that this is a public building with thousands of people accessing it every day, there are inevitably practical difficulties around security."

The theft is the latest in a string of data losses, which has already seen HRMC lose 25 million child benefit records in the post, the Northern Ireland DVLA lose 6,000 vehicle owner records and the Ministry of Defense lose the records of 60,000 armed forces applicants.