HSE Just Dumps Our Medical Data
RTE is reporting that hundreds of files containing confidential patient information have been found dumped in Glounthaune, just east of Cork city. Hundreds of confidential patient files. Hundreds of files that have sensitive information in them. And hundreds of files that could be used against their subjects.
The files contain contact information and data relating to treatment of patients from the 1970s and 1980s. The files cover patients treated in Cork University Hospital (the Cork Regional Hospital) and St. Finbarr’s Hospital. This situation amounts to exposing hundreds of patients to mass identity fraud, and very possibly, blackmail or discrimination. I wonder has anyone fallen victim to this already. If so, will there be recourse against the HSE offer by those affected?
The files were discovered early this week and were brought to the Examiner offices in the city. The HSE has instituted an investigation into the matter. In this era where Bank of Ireland can misplace the information of 30,000 customers or where the Irish Blood Transfusion Service can lose 173,000 files containing patient and donor information.
Every organisation worth it’s salt has a stringent policy regarding the disposal of sensitive patron information. The mind boggles how sensitive patient information can be literally dumped for all in sundry to poke about it. For God sake, one of the most common avenues of identity fraud is old-fashioned rubbish surfing, running through someone’s garbage and picking out old bills or letters with sensitive information. “Opening a hole in the ground and burying documents in the ground, oooo - that sounds safe. It’s cheap, too. Let’s try that.”