Second medical data dumping issue for concern says O’Dowd
Sensitive medical data has been found dumped for a second time in a location near Drogheda.
It follows the medical records of 12 patients found on a public road beside the River Boyne near Baltray last month, and according to Deputy Fergus O’Dowd TD, this is an unacceptable breach of privacy and data protection laws, and the hospitals involved must be held accountable for this second very serious breach.
“I got a lovely reply from Mr. Ian Carter, the chief executive of Beaumont Hospital, in response to two queries I put in about these very serious incidents,” said Deputy O’Dowd.
“He stated that a recent incident occurred whereby personal health information on patients was found outside Beaumont Hospital. It was found 30 miles away from the hospital, which is a bit different from it being blown out the window or falling out of a waste bin. On review of the incident - there was more than one - Mr. Carter indicates that the source of the information was identified as an accident and emergency department summary clinical handover report used by nursing and medical staff during shift changes. As a result of the incident, Mr. Carter indicates that all accident and emergency department staff have been directed to use the “confidential” bins provided for such reports prior to leaving the hospital. There we have it. Data protection amounts to putting the data into a confidential bin. How can a bin be confidential and the data relating to very serious medical histories of patients who may be extremely ill end up 30 miles away beside the River Boyne in County Louth? That is entirely and absolutely unacceptable.”
The Louth TD went on to say that if data in the private sector was allowed to fall into the public domain, there would be a fine or sanctions.
“The HSE is not held accountable, however, and certainly not through parliamentary questions. It will face no fine. This is a major problem because authorities such as those at Beaumont Hospital have very sensitive personal records but they can allow them, through weak and appalling management of the data, be found 30 miles away,” he said. “This happened once and probably twice, although I do not know that for sure. With the second incident I got a call because somebody found the data and asked me what to do with it. I asked if the name of the hospital was on the data but it was not. I told the person to take the data to the Garda station in Drogheda for safekeeping. That is where it went. I asked that gardaí should look to see if there is more data at the location, as it would not be acceptable to have it left there.”