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Updated 3pm, 5 August
AN INVESTIGATION IS underway after medical files were found in a house in County Wexford.
The woman who found the files, called Jane, told TheJournal.ie today that she and her partner were in the spare room of the house when they discovered the files beneath a mattress.
They moved into the house around two months ago and the house was not vacant, as had previously been reported.
“This is in top condition, the house we are in,” Jane said. She said that when they discovered the 50 – 60 files beneath the mattress, they realised they were psychiatric reports and official documents.
They did not read the files, said Jane. As it was late at night, the following morning they contacted the HSE, the gardaí and a local TD. They also sought legal advice on what to do with the files.
Jane subsequently handed the documents to a detective garda in Enniscorthy.
Investigation
Last night, the HSE confirmed that it was contacted by a member of the public about the discovery of confidential documents relating to patients being found in a house in the Wexford area.
Gardaí confirmed they had been contacted about the matter.
The HSE said it is taking this matter “extremely seriously” and has initiated an investigation.
The discovery has also been reported to the Data Protection Commissioner’s office.
The HSE said it is working under the guidance provided by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner in relation to the issue.
It said it will be “co-operating with the Data Protection Commissioner’s office as to any follow up actions that need to be taken”.
All the documents are now in the possession of the HSE. A statement from the service concluded by saying:
The HSE has policies and procedures in place to ensure that patients’ medical information is treated in confidence and that such material, is not accessed inappropriately.
- Additional reporting Aoife Barry
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The hse take nothing seriously,because there are no consequences for incompetence.
I think most would agree the HSE isn’t fit for purpose and needs to go but what do you replace it with?
its barely any time since they merged the health boards, the cost if these reorganisations is bloody huge
Theres money and opportunity in failure Tariq…when you are connected.
is that you Liam?
People who dia days work for a day’s pay!Why is O Brien still in his job?
Has anyone noticed how many of the head honchos in the HSE and TUZLA are Scottish and English?
Jester..you trying to sow confusion and discord on the Journal?
what do you mean sow? this place is a heaving pile of discord and you know it!
Hang on there now. The HSE is always co-operating with inquiries, it never refuses to do so, the problem is that incompetence at the top and apathy in the middle seem to necessitate inquiries every second day and the blame trickles down to the bottom layer anyway.
Very funny Tariq….
very funny Liam
ps its Tusla with an ‘s’
PPS……( i know )
Lol !
http://www.inquisition21.com/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=376
Gordon Jeyes was the director of children’s services at Cambridgeshire County Council, which fought hard to criminalize the innocent Ward couple and take their child.
It may be a coincidence that he was then given the top child protection job in Ireland, in a state industry currently managing a staff of 4,000 and a budget of £600 million.
It may also be a coincidence that he has moved from the country from which parents and children are fleeing to the country they are mainly fleeing to – Ireland.
In the four years since his move and, in particular in 2014, there has been a dramatic development. This is a significant media interest, particularly by TV, in the network helping fleeing families and in the stories of the families themselves. These are positively orientated towards the families and critical of social services. Almost all of the major British TV channels have been involved, or are currently involved.
A new development is that interest has expanded to the foreign media and the first international TV crew arrived in Ireland in January 2015. In addition to the positive orientation towards families, these news stories and documentaries are presenting Ireland as family orientated, dispensing justice and welcoming.
The coordinators of the help network, although happy with this media attention, are however also aware that there are forces at work in Ireland which want to support the British mode of child protection and to undermine family rights by giving the state through its social workers more powers to remove children.”
Al Jazeera did a programme on child abuse in a special care unit in dublin a few years ago….they dont get much more foreign than that! Good programme though…the abuser was the female manager and she got away with it…..
I wonder how they fared in their own countries? Not too great in this benighted country………..
The blame will be passed around and then nothing will happen. Same oul shite.
Investigation…meetings….task force..meetings….report….meetings….action plan…meetings….feasibility study….meetings….report….meetings……directive- new shredder contractor to be outsourced….tender process meeting….ad finitum..
Peter you forgot……..lessons learned, new protocols, never happen again………till next time…blah blah
Don’t forget extra allowances and expenses for staff to join a committee to have meetings about to form a working group to advise on how the committee to investigate this should be formed.
Why did “Jane” contact her local a local TD, the Gardai, the HSE and a solicitor? Who owns the house, a local health worker by any chance? She did not even think to contact the landlord? Strange.
Because she’s a drama queen and I don’t believe she didn’t read them either !
if she didnt read them then ill eat ALL the hats
Tariq VonDoom agrees with Suzie Sunshine…….
There is all talk about HSE in relation to this. This is nothing to do with the HSE. It has to do with most likely a worker bring home files and never returning them. In this case the HSE as an organization cannot be blamed. Hopefully the culprit is caught and fired however.
Fired? That’ll be a first!
This employee sounds useless enough to merit consideration for promotion to management…..
on its way to the shredder………..
First time for everything …Lol
Fair play to those who found them and recognised the need to get the Gardai involved….
on their way to be shredded?????
HSE and taking something seriously. Don’t make me laugh. They don’t know the meaning. Sure there will be no consequences. It’s the HSE
Of course they are taking it seriously. That level of incompetence can’t go unrewarded. I smell a promotion
And the creation of a new position on a generous salary …with a nebulous title…national director of patient information cessation?
Executive Officer in charge of outsourced mattress’ more like Peter.
H hapless
S shambolic
E entity.
HSE and taking a matter “extremely seriously” somehow doesn’t sound right.Time to start again disband this board of vested interested shower.
who would be unvested?
Cold people
Public sector workers should be…but maybe that’s just an idea that might work.
Priests for one ……
Time to weed out Common Purpose agents who deem themselves ” leaders outside authority”. A charity paid for by the people. A fine Trojan Horse in there.
All brainwashed to believe they are gods and using the same tactics as Scientology leaders.
Most service users go into shock on experiencing the tactics- imported from UK .
And these incompetent pencil pushers will naturally keep their jobs and probably better paid than nurses…. HSE needs to be disbanded now, it’s not fit for purpose.
1000′s of them..all go work in their Sunday best..maintain their social media profiles while working…gossip…anonymous, comfortable, secure, and WAY better paid than nurses..some better paid than doctors.
How w do you know it was a “pen pusher” and not a doctor who did it?
I was once told that if I ever dared to come looking for my files, that I would be told there was a fire.
Sure enough, when i made enquiries, there had been a fire – Guardians – old probation services .
Gardai confirmed the fire and loss of my files.
Now how would a social worker., probation officer know about the fire 10 years previous.?
No surprise on this matter.
Local radio said there was around a hundred files and they have a definite line of enquiry. I hope the spread of personal information is limited.
A paperless world would solve this kind of stupidity.
Paperless data breaches tend to be on an even bigger scale. One USB drive or a written down password can give access to mountains of confidential information that are unlikely to go unnoticed if held as paper files.
Aaaah the HSE…the gift that keeps on giving….customer/client/patient/service user confidentiality is at the core of their ethos….yeah right, only when it suits them.
What a waste of an investigation nothing will come out of it. My experience of the HSE were I worked for 7 years is I’m glad to be gone from it . I never met such an uneducated undisciplined and unmanaged staff in my 32 years in employment the government needs to privatize as much as they can and only then will you see change .
You really want your medical care to be given on a for-profit basis?
i would hope that we have at least some consensus that there are essential services the state provides: education, healthcare, infrastructure. only the most hardened Friedmanite could disagree
Why are the HSBC not saying what time of medical files they are ?Are they from a hospital or a GPS practice. What years are involved? Surely we have a right to that information
No. You haven’t.
none whatsoever, that would be a further data breach (unless it is your personal data)
I would have just put in the bin and thought nothing of it.
Why did she feel the need to call the Gardai, her local TD and her solicitor? Does she have nothing better to be doing with her life? Why not just pass it on to the hospital/GP practice and be done with it. She must have felt very important going down to her local police station and handing it to the detective there… very important indeed.
Dat Protection Commissioner is currently losing his preverbial fecal matter.
Data Protection Commissioner was the only one to assist me in getting files.
Success too.
her!
Didn’t read them because it was late!!!so if it was earlier in the evening would she have read them??????
Jaysus that’s Mad !!
Princess and the pea?
Is it time again to give a HSE head-nut another surprise raise- or even an nunearned bonus?
HSE is bordering on being just plain subversive at this stage.
Apologies to any remaining nuns; that was meant to be ‘unearned.’
I demand a tribunal. It’s been months since we’ve had one. How are the legal profession supposed to survive
Ha ha well the HSE appears positively immortal at this stage
……oops
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