The Data Protection Commissioner has confirmed that he has received a preliminary verbal report from Tallaght Hospital, concerning a potential data security breach.
The telephone report to the Commissioner was made by the hospital yesterday evening, after a series of questions were put to the hospital by RTÉ News, concerning the supply of medical records to a private firm, so that patient medical reports and GP letters can be typed up and returned to the hospital.
Some of the patient details were sent by the private firm to its offices in the Philippines to be transcribed and then returned to Ireland.
It is understood that medical data relating to thousands of patients were sent to the firm.
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The service was provided by a company with offices in Dublin and according to its website it is Data Protection compliant. The company encrypts the contents of the correspondence and no patient identifiers are used.
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