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VICTORIA - The Health Minister says in the next few days, more than 38-thousand people in B.C. will receive letters saying their personal information was shared with a researcher without permission.

"The file included personal health numbers, gender, dates of birth and postal codes. The data also included information on hospital discharges and medical admissions and discharges as well as medication history and medical service plan claims," Margaret MacDiarmid told reporters on Monday.

That data was linked with information provided by Stats Canada.

The information did not include names, but it did include the mental, sexual, and physical health of the people who filled out the census forms. It also included information on their lifestyle and use of health services.

It's just one of three breaches dating back to October 2010.

One case includes personal information on millions of patients.

The Health Minister is saying little about how the files were accessed except the information was placed on USB sticks and passed on to researchers without authorization, and the ministry wants it back.

"Once that health data has left the health ministry on a USB stick that in not encrypted," says MacDiarmid, "It's out there and someone could copy it. I don't know if that has happened."

MacDiarmid says there are more breaches, but for the meantime details on them are being kept under wraps.

The Health Ministry says its investigation into the privacy breaches continues, but appears to suggest there is no cause for concern with MacDiarmid saying no evidence has been found that the data has been used for anything other than health research.

So far, the ministry has fired seven employees over the data breach and conflict allegations; two are suing the government for defamation and wrongful dismissal, another was found dead in his home last week. The cause is still under investigation.

The Health Minister is standing behind the decision to fire the employees.

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