Health Minister Eric Hoskins has announced changes to better protect the health information of Ontarians after what he calls some "high profile" breaches.
Hoskins says the changes will make it mandatory to report breaches to the Information and Privacy Commissioner and will lift a six-month deadline in which prosecutions must be started.
He says fines for snooping into patient records would also be doubled to $100,000 for individuals and $500,000 for a corporation under changes to be introduced in the fall.
The medical records of former mayor Rob Ford were inappropriately accessed during his treatment for a rare form of cancer -- and several charges have been laid after staff at a Toronto hospital were accused of selling confidential data about new mothers to financial corporations.
