Rouge Valley hospital patient concerned over privacy breach

The privacy breach that compromised the information of thousands of new mothers at the Rouge Valley Hospital in Scarborough continues to grow.

• Personal data of 8,300 new moms sold to financial firm in hospital security breach

Thousands more are learning that their privacy was breached at another hospital in the Rouge Valley health network. The news has one mother worried about how her personal information may have been used.

First-time mother Gayle Smith has been taking in the joys of motherhood with her daughter Layla.

But yesterday she received a letter. It said her personal information may have been used by two staff members at the hospital where she had her baby.

"It's definitely unsettling to know that our information is out there," she told CBC News. "I definitely would be looking at the hospital to take steps so that it doesn't happen again," she said.

More than 6,000 mothers who gave birth at the Rouge Valley Ajax and Pickering site between July 2009 and April 2014 were notified of the privacy breach.

Their information may have been used to sell registered education savings plans (RESPs) to new parents.

"Thinking back I did receive a call, probably about a month after my daughter was born, and they were trying to sell me RESPs," said Smith.

Earlier this summer 8,000 other mothers at Rouge Valley's Scarborough location received the same troubling news.

A class-action lawsuit is already in the works.

Officials at Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner's office say they are working with the hospitals and will release findings on their investigation this fall.