Confidential medical documents found in Exeter road

Confidential medical documents with details of two vulnerable patients have been found in a Devon street.

The Devon Partnership NHS Trust papers were found by a resident in Barrack Road, Exeter, on Tuesday.

The trust, which runs mental health services, said the member of staff who lost the papers was "upset about the incident".

It said it had apologised to the patients and would investigate the incident.

'Very rare'

In a statement, the trust said: "We have apologised to the two people whose data was lost and would like to take this opportunity to apologise to them publicly.

"We take the security of information very seriously, particularly when it relates to people in our care."

The trust also said that it wanted to reassure the public that "incidents like this one are very rare".

The documents have since been returned.