The medicare information of 485 New Brunswickers has gone missing, Health Minister Mike Murphy told the legislature Tuesday.

The data was being sent on four magnetic tapes from New Brunswick to British Columbia by courier. The confidential medical records of 133 British Columbians were also lost.

"This is a very regrettable incident and I want to tell those whose personal information is contained on the cartridges that we are very concerned and proactive over what has happened," Murphy said.

There is no evidence that any of the information contained on the computer cartridges has been misused, Murphy said.

The government will be doing whatever it can to protect the information contained in the records so that it is not misused and will continue to try to locate their whereabouts, the minister said.

"It is on technology that is only used in data centres. We believe it was misplaced. There is no evidence otherwise and we are doing a full review."

The data was being sent under an agreement about sharing information about residents of one province using the health system of another.

The cartridges were sent by courier to Richmond, B.C., on Oct. 3.

Records show they arrived in the western province on Oct. 5 but somehow vanished without getting into the hands of provincial health officials.

The exact sequence of events is not yet clear, said Murphy, and New Brunswick is continuing to investigate what happened.

New Brunswick health authorities were not informed that the records were missing until Oct. 25 and Murphy said the province's director of medicare operations was not told until Nov. 29.

Murphy found out late last week.

"There has been a failure of communication within the Health Department, a failure of communication within jurisdictions and a failure of communication to the public," Conservative MLA Bruce Fitch told the legislature. "This is a very serious matter."

The province has issued a directive to British Columbia stating it will now only send billing information on encrypted compact discs rather than the out-dated cartridge format that has been in use since 1989.

New Brunswick hopes to have an electronic health record system up and running by 2009 and Murphy has promised to table legislation in the spring to protect those files.