THE HEALTH service documentation found dumped in a bog in Co Galway included clinical information which emanated from Sligo General Hospital, the Health Service Executive has said.
However, the material had been shredded and the Data Protection Commissioner’s office has found that details relating to individual patients were not identifiable.
The HSE West said last night it accepted the documentation had been disposed of in an inappropriate manner. It said it was investigating the matter internally.
The material relating to Sligo General Hospital was found in a sack of documents on a roadside in the bog at Abbeyknockmoy near Tuam on Wednesday afternoon.
The documents were discovered by a community litter warden involved in a clean-up of the bog with Galway County Council.
In a statement yesterday, the HSE West said that an initial examination of the shredded documentation indicated that it appeared to contain information relating to Sligo General Hospital.
“The documentation was examined this morning by Sligo General Hospital staff and it has been established that the shredded material contains some general stationery and clinical documentation.”
“The HSE is currently investigating the matter internally. Following consultation with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner and having examined the evidence supplied, they have advised us that they can find no evidence of a meaningful disclosure of personal identifiable information and now consider the matter closed. They will not be continuing their investigations.”
Health service sources said that clinical material for disposal at the hospital is destroyed in industrial shredders before being sent off for recycling. The new HSE investigation is expected to centre on how the material emanating from the hospital ended up in Co Galway.
HSE West regional health forum chairman Padraig Conneely said the Garda should be called in to examine HSE West’s system of filing patient records.
“First and foremost, this is an HSE West issue, and it should ensure that responsibility is taken for all three incidents of this type,” Cllr Conneely (FG) said. “It is very worrying that confidential patient information has been made public in this way, and HSE West needs to tighten procedures – if it is has any. One could be cynical about the fact that this has been the third such occasion, but the Garda should be asked to review the situation.”
The discovery in Tuam is the latest in a series of such incidents to emerge over recent weeks.
Earlier this month, dozens of files allegedly belonging to hundreds of patients at the Midland Regional Hospital in Mullingar were found outside Roscommon Hospital, 75km (47 miles) away. These files contained names, addresses and details of sensitive medical tests. The medical files were discovered by a woman walking her dog and they were handed over to the Roscommon Hospital Action Committee which has been campaigning against cuts to services. The committee reported the discovery to the Data Protection Commissioner.
In mid-August medical records of a number of patients who attended St Joseph’s district hospital in Ballina, Co Mayo were discovered by a litter warden in a bin at a local housing estate.
The HSE has launched investigations into both incidents and these are ongoing.