Data Protection Commissioner, Billy Hawkes has slammed certain State bodies for their attitude towards the protection of vital data. His annual report for 2009 tells how an area of “some disappointment” for his office has been the reluctance of “some State bodies to take sufficient account of data protection issues” when framing new legislation or applying existing law.

'The development of appropriate controls governing access to patient databases, including directory services, should be a priority for the HSE.'

“In some such cases, I have, reluctantly, felt it necessary to bring concerns directly to the attention of the legislature,” he added. The Health Service Executive, rather unsurprisingly, figures heavily in Hawkes’ criticism during the report, with the Commissioner saying, amongst other things, that “the existing controls on patient database development within the HSE are insufficient to prevent the development of ad-hoc databases”. Continue Reading