{"id":612486,"date":"2026-09-02T18:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T18:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612486\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T18:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T18:02:09","slug":"hse-fined-e645000-after-rotting-medical-records-found-amid-animal-droppings-and-rubble-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/612486\/","title":{"rendered":"HSE fined \u20ac645,000 after rotting medical records found amid animal droppings and rubble \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Health Service Executive<\/a> has been fined \u20ac645,000 after an inquiry found medical records had been destroyed by mould, contaminated by animal droppings, covered in rubble or rotted due to water damage.<\/p>\n

The Data Protection Commission<\/a> (DPC), which imposed the fines, is the national supervisor responsible for enforcing data privacy law. The DPC said its inquiry that began in May 2024 was taken as a result of two personal data breaches.<\/p>\n

These were notified to the DPC in October 2023 and November 2023. <\/p>\n

On both occasions, people gained unauthorised access to paper records stored and retained at two former disused psychiatric hospitals.<\/p>\n

The first incident occurred at St Loman\u2019s Hospital, which is contaminated with asbestos, in Mullingar, Co Westmeath.<\/p>\n

The second incident took place at St Conal\u2019s Hospital, which is contaminated with severe mould, in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0TikTok video revealing access to medical records spurs inquiry into HSE data breachesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

[\u00a0TikTokkers find death records in former psychiatric hospital in WestmeathOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Videos uploaded to social media highlighted that medical records, such as death records, were stored in both facilities.<\/p>\n

In April 2024, the HSE informed the DPC that it became aware, through social media, that there had been unauthorised access to the basement of St Loman\u2019s Hospital, where further records were being stored. <\/p>\n

The DPC said it was told by the HSE that these records were \u201cold mental health\u201d records.<\/p>\n

The DPC found during site inspections that documents were \u201cdamaged or effectively destroyed by mould, contaminated by animal droppings, covered in rubble or detritus, rotting due to the storage environment or water damaged\u201d.<\/p>\n

It also discovered storage areas in \u201csuch profound disarray and neglect that the records contained within them could not be deemed to be filed in any organised or accessible manner\u201d.<\/p>\n

Records were found to be stored in disused bathrooms and cubicles, a shipping container in a turf shed, rooms without functioning lighting or heating as well as at derelict buildings at a number of locations.<\/p>\n

As part of the inquiry process, the DPC carried out 12 site inspections nationwide to establish whether the issues identified in the breach notifications were isolated incidents or whether the issues were systemic.<\/p>\n

The DPC identified data protection failings concerning the physical conditions of HSE document storage facilities and the integrity of the documents held there.<\/p>\n

It ordered the HSE to carry out a full audit of all storage facilities to ensure they were fit for purpose.<\/p>\n

The DPC said, in calculating fines, it considered, as an aggravating factor, that the HSE committed similar previous infringements concerning the lack of appropriate security measures and the loss of control over personal data contained in paper healthcare records. <\/p>\n

DPC deputy commissioner Graham Doyle said: \u201cthe retention of records by the HSE in an insecure manner beyond the period where they should be retained gives rise to an ongoing significant risk of unauthorised access to and disclosure of sensitive medical information by third parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters following the official opening of a new community residence for people living with a disability in south Dublin, Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said that the \u201cvery significant\u201d fine imposed on the HSE \u201creflects the fact that it is a significant breach and it\u2019s important that people\u2019s data is protected.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said this issue is happening in \u201ctoo many different places.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a problem arising from the fact that we have a paper based record system. That said, it still needs to be managed and protected and carefully protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said moving to an electronic health record system \u201cwill fix a lot of that because those records won\u2019t exist in paper form to be stored in hospitals in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

The HSE said it acknowledges and accepts the report findings and work is ongoing to address the failings identified. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are sorry this has happened and we apologise to patients and the people who use our services for data breaches at St Loman\u2019s and St Conal\u2019s sites and for our noncompliance with paper record retention and record management policies and procedures.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeveloping a national, consistent and standardised approach to archiving and disposal of records is a key priority for the HSE.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Health Service Executive has been fined \u20ac645,000 after an inquiry found medical records had been destroyed by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1418,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-612486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-health-service-executive-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}