Private patients’ medical records lying about at the disused St Philip’s Hospital are no longer accessible to the public after the Data Protection Commission ordered its owner to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of the documents.
“I confirm that the owner of the property has complied with the order we have issued,” Information and Data Protection Commissioner Ian Deguara told Times of Malta, adding that an investigation into the case has been closed.
Deguara did not elaborate but Times of Malta understands that, to comply with the instructions, hospital owner Frank Portelli had to either secure the premises in Santa Venera, ensuring nobody could enter, or else destroy the documents altogether.
Times of Malta unsuccessfully tried to reach Portelli for comment.
The provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) empower the commissioner to issue orders, warnings, impose bans and even fines to entities that process people’s personal data to ensure that security safeguards are implemented to preserve the integrity and confidentiality of such information.
A visit to the hospital on Tuesday confirmed that the premises have been locked up again. The wooden front doors that once adorned the entrance to the private hospital were completely removed and replaced with a large, flaky slab of green iron, which seems to have previously served as a garage door.
Smashed windows on the ground floor have been blocked with stones from the inside and, while other windows in higher floors are still open, walking into the hospital now is hardly possible.
It is, however, unclear whether the medical records were locked away securely or destroyed altogether.
The commissioner launched the investigation last month after sensitive medical records of patients treated there became publicly and very easily accessible after the hospital suffered multiple break-ins, vandalism and an arson in the past months.
Shocking footage had emerged online, of a foreign Youtuber walking effortlessly into the hospital and wandering through vandalised operating theatres and shattered medical equipment.
He flipped through medical records and walked over and around broken furniture, scattered papers, syringes and what he claimed to be “human organs”.
Times of Malta had also visited the hospital while its front doors were still wide open and could confirm that nothing kept anyone from walking into a room in the basement containing patients’ medical documents, most of which had clearly been viewed and dispersed all over the place.
There were pre-operation documents, ECG test results, ultrasounds and entire files lying around, containing thousands of medical records with names and details.
Some who worked in the neighbourhood said they would frequently see people walking into the hospital to wander around and, while Times of Malta was on site last month, at least three other groups of people were touring the facility.
In an interview with Times of Malta, Portelli had blamed vandals and the police with regard to access to the records.
He said that, when the hospital closed in 2012, it was securely locked and left perfectly intact. Patients’ medical records were locked away safely in the basement but vandals broke in deliberately to spite him and the police were doing nothing to enforce the law.
The police had said that it is Portelli who is lawfully obliged to secure the private premises.
It is unclear whether the medical records were either locked away securely or destroyed altogether. Photo: Karl Andrew Micallef