AN investigation has been launched by Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) into alleged data breaches by the Health Service Executive (HSE).
The inquiry concerns the “storage and retention of personal data contained in paper records held by the HSE via its use of external storage facilities and breaches of security which were notified to the DPC by the HSE” the DPC said in a statement this morning.
The DPC further confirmed that the breaches they were notified about related to two specific locations – where HSE data was “accessed by unauthorised third parties”.
More specifically they confirmed that the breaches involved “the circulation of videos taken from these locations showing paper medical records located at these facilities”.
According to RTE, one of the alleged incidents involves a TikTok video showing a person going through patient records at a hospital in Donegal.
The other incident is believed to have occurred at a facility in Dublin.
Both alleged incidents occurred in 2023.
In a statement, the HSE told The Irish Post they have “received a Notice of Commencement of an Inquiry from the Data Protection Commission into two separate HSE data breaches which occurred in 2023”.
“We will co-operate fully with this inquiry,” they added.
“The HSE takes all breaches of data protection seriously and manages all breaches of data protection in line with data protection legislation and HSE policy.”