TikTok content creators exploring a former psychiatric hospital in Westmeath have discovered death records and what appear to be discharge reports.
However, the HSE said the personal records left in a former medical facility, shown in the TikTok video, are “not a reportable personal data breach”.
The video, posted last week, shows the creators exploring the former St Loman’s psychiatric hospital in Mullingar, which closed in 2013.
It was uploaded by Jamie Robinson, a Northern Irish content creator who explores abandoned buildings across Ireland.
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Records with names, dates of birth and addresses were found in a container marked “Deaths A-Z”, with Robinson remarking that there was“quite a lot of them”. They also contained details of admissions at St Loman’s, while directly next to the death records were what appear to be discharge reports. Robinson said the video was filmed the week before it was uploaded.
The interior of the former psychiatric hospital can be seen in disrepair, with trolleys, wheelchairs, mattresses, bed frames and shattered glass littered throughout its halls and rooms.
One of Robinson’s videos from 2023 has prompted a data breach investigation into the HSE, after he came across boxes of historical medical records left behind at the former St Conal’s psychiatric hospital in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.
“It just keeps on happening. I’m happy I exposed everything and did my bit to help the people realise what was happening,” he said.
A spokesman for the Data Protection Commission (DPC), which asked to see the TikTok video, said it is currently engaging with the HSE as part of an overall inquiry into its storage and retention of personal data contained in paper records.
“The DPC has no further comment to give at this time as the process is ongoing,” he said.
Two separate data breach investigations are currently ongoing, the one concerning St Conal’s and another at a hospital in Dublin, in which personal records were discovered by creators while live streaming online.
A spokeswoman for the HSE, however, said: “The HSE has communicated with the Data Protection Commission regarding this matter and we have determined that this is not a reportable personal data breach.”
Though it did not expand on its reasoning, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) does not apply to the personal data of deceased people.
The spokeswoman said the HSE is co-operating fully with the DPC in a statutory inquiry on the storage and retention of paper records in the HSE.
“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. We cannot comment on an ongoing inquiry,” she said.
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