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A ‘RATS OUT of the HSE’ protest was staged at the Department of Health’s Baggot Street office in Dublin today, calling for better protection of patient information and for an external investigation to be launched into last week’s revelations of apparent data breaches.
A number of investigations were launched last week into claims that a woman who had an abortion at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin was phoned and harassed by a man who had obtained her personal information.
Meanwhile anti-abortion protesters claimed on Friday that they were being provided with information on when abortions were scheduled to take place at Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
Councillor Éilis Ryan of The Workers’ Party, one of the organisers of today’s demonstration, said the HSE needed to outline the steps it had taken to ensure that staff were providing abortion services in a fair and transparent manner.
When abortion services were introduced at the start of last month, Ryan said, “it doesn’t seem that any thought was put into how to change the culture of our hospitals to ensure people who might have anti-choice feelings themselves are not biased in how they carry out their healthcare provision”.
Ryan said that the only thing Health Minister Simon Harris had committed to so far was an internal probe, but “given the scale of scandals linking to the HSE in recent years we don’t feel that an internal investigation can be trusted or is sufficient”.
Ryan suggested Gabriel Scally, who carried out the review of the Cervical Check screening programme, may be an appropriate person to investigate the possible leaking of information.
Around a dozen people – carrying placards and holding cut-out rat masks – took part in the lunchtime protest at Miesian Plaza, the site of the former Bank of Ireland on Baggot St.
Seamus McDonagh, who travelled from Kells to take part, said he was concerned about protesters “openly boasting” about having access to information about abortions at Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda, his local hospital.
“It’s difficult enough having an abortion without being harassed by these people,” McDonagh said.
The HSE have to take responsibility for how the information is getting out to these people and we have to stop that.
Simon Harris said on Friday that it was “extraordinarily concerning and disturbing” that a patient’s details could have been leaked after she had an abortion.
The idea that anybody might leak a woman’s confidential information is reprehensible, it is grotesque, it’s disgusting and that is why I asked the HSE yesterday to investigate the matter and report back.
The HSE, the Dublin Well Woman Clinic, the National Maternity Hospital and the Data Protection Commissioner are making inquiries into the alleged incident.
The Data Protection Commissioner is also looking into reports of data leaks at Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda. A hospital spokesperson said on Friday that “all staff are aware of their obligations under the relevant Data Protection legislation and are continually made aware of the importance of patient confidentiality”.
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The state of all them candidates. No competition to Michael D
@Ciarān: Mickey D is the real deal. Couldn’t think of anyone better.
@Ciarān: if president Higgins was in that group you could equally say the state of him ,I can’t say I know of anything outstanding that he’s done ,he praised some men at a funeral that I would have had little respect for in the recent past
@FlopFlipU: What more would you have asked him to do? He is an intelligent, eloquent speaker who represents us well abroad and at home and is always visibly proud to do so.
@Ciarān: Michael D isn’t a patch on McAleese, and is too old for another 7 year term. Joan Freeman will have my vote assuming her candidacy isn’t blocked. Fantastic woman, and without wishing to be sexist I think the women elected to that office have far outperformed any of the men that went before them (although gender is not why I’ll vote for Freeman, but worthy of note all the same)
@Ciarān: I thought the agenda of the last election was to eliminate Labour, let’s complete the job and give higgins the boot too.
@B-Tech Roadman: What per cent of the population actually voted for his party in the last election?
@FlopFlipU: He established TG4 for one thing, and struck the perfect balance in marking the 1916 centenary.
@Trevor Hayden: eh yeah right whatever
@Ciarān: He is a hypocrite and a champagne socialist.
Duffy. A great defender of bloodsports and hunts. No thanks
@Good Early: No joe duffy. ring him at 2 everyday.
@Sean Conway: tbh I’m in shock Duffy isn’t running. Bet he’d run under FG. If mims o Callaghan had ran ,wouldn’t she effectively have been a FF candidate ?
So Joan couldn’t answer the question in Irish. Why doesn’t it mention whether the other two could?
@Joe Lennon:
Maybe no one cared? The fact she hasn’t in the past wasted her time and energy on a useless language is the first good thing I have heard about her.
@Joe Lennon: No idea. Maybe she was the only person asked a question in Irish? They only gave Feeney a token mention, suggesting our impartial press have wrote him off already.
@P.J. Nolan: the first good thing you’ve heard about her? You know she started Pieta House right? Or were you just being facetious?
@ObsidianShine:
I was well aware of Pieta house, I’ve been there as a visitor! I should have said it was the first good thing since the start of this campaign.
@ObsidianShine: and then put god in charge of the finances. That’s a no from me
@P.J. Nolan: Gligín
Democracy means we have a contest. The issue of cost of an election should not come into it. There is no price for Democracy.
Let the Candidates declare themselves, let’s hear the debate and let’s vote. Long live the Republic.
@Gavin O’Brien: ‘Democracy means we have a contest.’ Are you sure you aren’t confusing democracy with a game show, the needs of the citizens with the needs of TV viewers and the media who profit from endless ‘polls’? We have democratically elected a man who does the job well. Even these ‘candidates’ admit this. Which begs the question: if this is the case, why are they running?
@alan: You obviously have not a clue what a democracy is or how it works if you think we have a man democratically elected. He stated he would take the job for seven years not fourteen.
Fourteen years is too long a time for one of the most powerful positions in the state in my opinion. We need to have an election to hold Michael D accountable for his actions during his term as president whether you agree with them or not you get to chose at the ballot.
@brian boru: ‘to hold Michael D accountable for his actions during his term as President’. What actions would they be?
@sean o’dhubhghaill: that’s up to everyone to find out and make a decision on. Just because some people just see the veneer and the position is powerless, doesn’t mean others don’t think he may not be the best candidate for the job of president.
@brian boru: You do not know what the job is if you think it is so powerful. There are powers but they are clearly defined and limited with various backstops.
@brian boru: Okay, you think a fourteen year term limit is too long. What’s that got to do with having an election for the role? Completely different topic that we can and will vote on if we have to. That’s like saying that you buy Smarties to send a message. No one knows what your message is, and that’s not even why we’re here in the first place.
Joan Freeman best of this bunch , by a long shot , she’s far more in touch with the what’s going in peoples lives on than others , she sees it every day .
@Margaret: yet I couldn’t possibly vote for someone who admittedly deprived citizens of equal rights.
@sequoia: Who did that as the President does not make the laws they sign off on them if they do not break the constitution. Learn about the actual powers of the job before you blame somebody for something that was not their fault
@Gary Kearney: she voted no in the 8th amendment referendum is what i think sequoia is referring to. it is also the reason that i wouldn’t vote for her.
…..President Freeman, great name for a free Republic.
@Brian McDonnell: Freeperson surely
I thought the object of the last election was to eliminate Labour, let’s give higgins the boot too.
His state funeral will cost us a fortune, lets not add to the expense.
@Trevor Hayden: How will it “add to the expense” to pay the same amount to a different person for the sake of it? What difference would it make to the main political parties? Have you noticed taxes being reduced due to savings made, or something?
Great. We’re seriously being asked to consider the likes of Duffy, who doesn’t understand the Presidency and really only wants this on his CV? Or Freeman, an uber-catholic President? Would she refuse to sign the legislation to give effect to the wishes of the people in the referendum? How does she feel about the proposed blasphemy changes? Michael D will brush the likes of them aside, and in the process they’ll have their secrets outed and reputations tattered, just like what happened Sean Gallagher.
I agree, there’s not much to offer voters. Also, internationally, who on earth cares if Duffy is a good pal of Sean Gallagher’s? He’s running for President, not trying to get into a nightclub, for Pete’s sake.
Can anyone nominate themselves , my god a sorry bunch . Spare us from iona . keep going michael d…
Has Michael d achieved anything of note personally outside of the culture of our disgraceful gombeen politics, like Freeman and Duffy? I can’t think of anything!
Duffy is clearly a champion of the patriarchy – it’s easy to imagine him beating his chest and roaring like Tarzan in celebration of his own mediocrity. Freeman is a queen of the matriarchy and if elected will suffocate the country with touchy feely mammy meetings and whinging. Higgins is wise, caring, and eloquent. His dogs would make better presidents that the other two.
@Martello Mulligan:
What do u mean that we have no other options ? Michael D couldn’t give a fiddlers about what u mentioned, he totally backed millions of state ( as in our taxes) money being poured into a vanity project in Galway. Also where did he get his accent ? Limerick, North Cork or Galway ? Hardly indigenous to any of those regions. I remain to be convinced that he’s the best on offer.
In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king.
The only way any of those massive egos is above Michael D is in height. How they can carry their self importance has me baffled. No worries there Michael D. Slainte.
What a waste of money. Michael D will destroy them on every level there is
@Tommy C: Have people forgotten which party mickey is a member of. Yes liebour who along with ffg screwed the country up. He has been paid 200,000 a year for the last 7 years and now wants another 7. He is a traitor to everything the old labour party stood for.
@Derek Poutch: He was old Labour real Labour and has never changed.
The promises are all out already for these candidate, do they not realise its just a figurehead position.
Powerless county councils are enjoying a few weeks of presidential summer glory. Then it’s back to waste collection, street lights and the administration of grants for construction and repair of footpaths.
Is Bono on the list of candidates
as he still hasn’t found what he’s looking for ?
Well this is gonna be a right sh*t show from start to finish.
Sad to not see Bosco running this year
Pieta House is one of finest initiatives in the country, but I think we need people involved in mental health so positively to stay in that field as there are few enough batting for it.
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