MEDICAL RECORDS of a number of patients who attended St Joseph’s district hospital in Ballina have been discovered by a litter warden in a bin at a local housing estate.
The Health Service Executive West has confirmed an investigation is under way. It said the medical notes were “discarded inappropriately” and returned by the warden to the hospital. It has written to those affected to apologise and is asking people with concerns to contact it.
The problem emerged when a woman whose aunt’s medical notes were among those found contacted Midwest Radio.
The records were put together by medical staff preparing to hand over shifts. They appear to relate to patients who attended the hospital in April.
Those affected, including family members of people now deceased, were contacted in recent days by officials at the hospital who explained the situation and apologised. It is understood the hospital and the HSE have undertaken to update them in three weeks.
The HSE said the files were staff notes only and there was no unauthorised access to any permanent records of patients.
“The information contained in these notes was minimal and consisted of a daily list of patients at the hospital, together with some additional handwritten notes taken by staff members to assist in the process of the handover of shifts,” the HSE statement said.
“St Joseph’s hospital . . . has clear policies for the disposal of any material that may concern patient information, irrespective of the nature of that information. In this instance, these policies were not followed and the hospital is now investigating how this arose.”
The matter has been brought to the attention of the Data Protection Commissioner, whose office confirmed it will be working with the HSE West to investigate.
The hospital issued a contact phone number for anyone who may be affected: 096-21166.