Laptops holding tens of thousands of patients' records have been stolen from a hospital and a GP's home, it emerged yesterday.

In the latest lost personal data scandal, the information was stored on the machines in contravention of NHS guidelines.

It was revealed that details of 20,000 patients were on six laptops stolen earlier this month from filing cabinets at St George's Hospital, in Tooting, South West London.

It is the fourth data breach the hospital has suffered in the past year.

Laptops containing patient data have been stolen from St George's Hospital

The data includes patients' names, postcodes, hospital numbers and dates of birth and can be accessed if passwords are cracked.

Normally such information is stored on the hospital's central network, but because of technical problems it was being stored temporarily on the laptops.

It was also admitted last night that the medical histories of 11,000 patients, along with their names, addresses and dates of birth, were on a laptop stolen from a GP's home in Wolverhampton.

The information was not encrypted as it was supposed to be, and is only password protected.

Following both thefts, the health trusts concerned have written to the patients affected and have informed police.

But they insisted there was no reason to believe the computers were targeted for anything but their monetary value.

More than 100 computers have been stolen from hospitals across London alone over the past year.