The illegal accessing of historical patient files at a former hospital in Co Donegal has been reported to gardaí, the Saolta University Hospital Group has said.
It comes after a video shared on social media platform TikTok showed a person trawling through boxes of patient records in the now-vacant St Conal's Psychiatric Hospital in Letterkenny.
The building was reviewed by local HSE management this morning who said the records, which dated back several decades, were being stored at the "locked facility" which closed permanently in 2010.
In line with its policy, the HSE said any data incidents are taken very seriously and acted on immediately.
It has been reported that a 'Tiktoker’ parked their car beneath a CCTV camera and managed to gain entry to the hospital through the front door, despite there being a lock.
The footage was circulated widely and showed the person going through patient files.
It is understood that nothing was removed from the property, but many of the files were described as being in a very bad condition.
The HSE said that a review of record retention policies with regard to different kinds of patient records will be completed shortly.
It said: "This incident has also been reported to the Data Protection Commissioner in accordance with legislation.
"The Commissioner will determine whether or not this constitutes a breach given that it was the result of forced entry and trespass."
In parallel, a review of the requirement to continue to store historical records in line with HSE policy on record retention periods will be "completed as soon as possible," it said.
