Thousands of HSE staff and patient files being stored in unsecured former morgue at Cottage Hospital
Updated: 23 hours ago
Thousands of medical files in poor condition are being stored in the former morgue and outbuildings at the Cottage Hospital in Drogheda.
By John Kierans - 16/09/2026 - Drogheda Independent - [Ireland]
Thousands of medical files in poor condition are being stored in the former morgue and outbuildings at the Cottage Hospital in Drogheda.
Staff are seriously concerned about the state of the files, especially as the HSE was fined €600,000 by the Data Protection Commission for failing to securely store patient medical records at hospitals in Mullingar and Letterkenny.
These files were found rotting, water-damaged, destroyed by mould, contaminated with animal droppings and, in some cases, covered in rubble.
Cottage Hospital staff are demanding urgent action be taken before the files in Drogheda end up in a similar state. One employee who discovered the files in the mortuary said the building is unlocked and contains deceased patients’ records and employee records that have been dumped and left there unsecured for years.
Anyone who enters the building can easily view or take any of the thousands of files stored there.The individual said the families concerned are totally unaware that the medical records of their relatives are being kept there and are not secured.
“Something urgent has to be done to secure all these records because it is just not right.
“We don’t know whether all the patients concerned are dead. You should not be able to walk into a building and read somebody’s private medical files, even if they are dead,” the source said.When contacted about the Cottage Hospital files, the HSE gave a commitment to address the issue in line with its new storage strategy as a result of the recent Data Protection case.
It stated: “Earlier this week, the HSE accepted in full the findings of the Data Protection Commission statutory inquiry into the management of paper-based health records across multiple HSE locations.“The HSE will comply with all the recommendations outlined in the inquiry report, and a HSE programme of work is underway in relation to this.
“We are aware of this site and it is being prioritised as part of the comprehensive national records management programme of work that the HSE is now undertaking.
“Developing a national, consistent and standardised approach to archiving and disposal of records is a key priority for the HSE.”
Dignity4Patients Commentary: The discovery of thousands of HSE patient files being stored in an unsecured former morgue raises further concerns about the whereabouts and security of patient records. In particular, do these missing files include files related to the victims of Michael Shine? Are these records being properly identified and considered when victims of Michael Shine seek copies of their medical files under the Freedom of Information Act or for Garda Investigations? With the HSE now required to improve its storage and tracking of patient records, there must also be clarity about its new storage strategy. Crucially, records that may be required for a future Commission of Investigation must be identified and protected from being lost, destroyed or otherwise becoming inaccessible.
