A number of people seen at the National Screening Centre on Monday received other people's test results because of a technical malfunction in printing equipment operated by a private company, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

"The service provider commissioned to print and mail the test results had suffered a technical malfunction in the printing equipment. As a result, a batch of these test results were erroneously printed on double-sided paper with the consequence that a number of clients received their results in addition to data pertaining to other clients on the other side of their results letter," the ministry said.

A data protection breach complaint is being made to the Data Protection Commissioner for further investigation.

Clients are being individually contacted by mail in order to rectify the situation, the ministry said.

The ministry did not say what the affected people were screened for.