29 A&E PATIENTS’ RECORDS FOUND AT SIDE OF ROAD
Shock as files are picked up by a litter patrol...50km from hospital
A MAN told of his shock last night after finding confidential medical records at the side of a road.
Jimmy Mcguirk stumbled across the documents from the A&E of Dublin’s Beaumont Hospital on Friday as he picked up litter in Baltray, Co Louth.
The 63-year-old said the files contained information on 29 patients.
He added: “I was out picking litter when I saw these three documents lying by the bridge.
“I don’t know how they got there. They’re from the A&E department in Beaumont Hospital [and show] what they were taken into hospital for and people’s names. I found them on the bridge.
“I don’t know how they got to Baltray, unless there were a few doctors that live around here or something.”
The documents date from just over a week ago – October 2 – with a time of 7.53am.
They show details of name, age, impression from triage and treament as well as social status, pressure areas and their current doctor. Jimmy had been out on a weekly Tidy Towns clean-up with a community work placement scheme when he came across the documents. Irish Patients’ Association’s Stephen Mcmahon said the HSE must be more responsible with its records. He added: “This is not the first time such patient confidential information has been found outside the security of a hospital.
“This reflects poorly on governance of such basic information as the patient’s right to confidentiality.
“The HSE needs to forensically investigate these breaches and identify the management teams responsible for those indentifiable patients – to ensure non-occurrence in future.”
In February this year, documents containing names, dates of birth and medical conditions of 18 patients were found by a jogger on a street near Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
And in 2017, details of 44 patients were found on the street near the same hospital. Patient data was lost at least three more times in 2016 by the hospital.
Beaumont Hospital refused to comment on the apparent confidentiality breach until it sees the missing documents.