The State’s data watchdog has reprimanded Tallaght children’s hospital for “failing to ensure” healthcare records were stored and retained in a confidential manner.
Last year, The Irish Times revealed that the Data Protection Commission had conducted an unannounced inspection of a shared office for non-consultant hospital doctors (NCHD) on the first floor of the hospital on July 16th, 2025.
It is understood the door to the shared office – where hundreds of patient charts were stored – was propped open, making it accessible to people walking by. When closed properly, the door is locked with a keypad.
The inspection was conducted after the commission received a protected disclosure. Following this, the DPC announced it was starting an inquiry into Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) Tallaght.
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In a statement on Thursday, the DPC said during the protected disclosure process, it became aware that documents “containing both sensitive and special-category data of children had been over-flowing, and subsequently removed, from a confidential waste bin”.
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The bin was located beside the door to the NCHD office.
“Collectively, these issues highlighted security concerns surrounding the confidentiality of children’s personal data which was stored and retained in paper records in the NCHD office at CHI and the proper management and control of those records,” the statement said.
The commission found CHI Tallaght “infringed” the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on two grounds, primarily relating to security and confidentiality of personal data.
According to the commission, the hospital failed to ensure personal data was “processed in a manner which ensured the appropriate security and confidentiality of that data”.
The DPC said it had reprimanded CHI Tallaght and “ordered” the facility to bring its processing of personal data into compliance with the GDPR.
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It said it would publish the full decision “in due course”.
Dr Turlough Bolger, a consultant in emergency medicine and clinical director at CHI Tallaght, sent an email to staff at the hospital the day after the DPC’s inspection.
He said the watchdog had “expressed concern” about the number of patient charts in the room, as well as the number of loose pages with patient details.
“I expect that the recommendations will be wide-ranging and damaging to CHI at Tallaght,” he told staff.
Bolger said he appreciated the “hard work” done by staff to reduce the number of outstanding discharge charts in recent weeks, which saw a “significant reduction” from 900 to 600 charts.
“I have said repeatedly that there needs to be a sustainable approach to this issue. Ultimately, as the accountable officer in CHI at Tallaght, I am responsible for the overall situation regarding medical records.”
In a statement after the inspection, a spokeswoman for CHI said “immediate measures” were taken to “reduce any potential risk, including reinforcing physical safeguards and engaging directly with staff”.
