A MENTAL health patient's confidential medical file has been found dropped in the street.

Takeaway food shop manager Anthony Barrett was taking his two Rottweilers for their morning walk when he found the file in a gutter in Sandford Road, near Littlemore hospital.

He has returned the papers to hospital managers, but contacted The Oxford Times to stop it happening again.

Hospital managers have launched an inquiry into how the file - which contained the man's medical history, that he had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act and letters from Thames Valley Police about him - came to be in the street.

Mr Barrett, a father-of-three, said: "It was marked confidential so I picked it up and took it home. It was full of notes relating to one particular patient, containing details about his medical history and a section on his risk assessment.

"I know the file was marked confidential, but I have to admit I had a quick look through it.

"Some of the patients are allowed out, and I wanted to check out the paperwork to see this man's background, because it looks like he is allowed out when he wants.

"The file contained letters from Thames Valley Police, and he has been sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He's a man in his 40s, originally from London, and he appears to have changed his name several times by deed poll.

"I'm sure he wouldn't be too pleased if he found out his file had been dumped in the street.

"I have never had mental health problems myself, but I do sympathise with the people who go there, and I was amazed to find this file."

When we contacted managers at the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Trust to alert them to the missing file, they were so keen to retrieve it they volunteered to visit Mr Barrett and pick it up straight away.

But Mr Barrett, who works in an industrial kitchen at Cowley Retail Park, agreed to leave the file at the hospital's reception.

"I had no intention of keeping the file - I just wanted to make a point that this should not be happening," he said.

"It's not the sort of thing you expect to find in the morning when you are out walking the dogs."

Helen Miller, a spokesman for Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Trust, said: "This concerns us a great deal and we will be undertaking an in-depth investigation.

"The last thing we want is for patients' confidentiality to be put at risk."