The Data Protection Commission has opened an “inquiry” into Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) Tallaght relating to the physical safety and security of children’s health records.

Last month The Irish Times reported that the watchdog had conducted an unannounced inspection of a shared office for nonconsultant hospital doctors on the first floor of the hospital on July 16th.

It is understood the door to the shared office, containing hundreds of patient charts, was propped open – making it accessible to people walking by. When closed properly, the door is locked with a keypad.

In a statement on Thursday, the watchdog said it became aware there were “potential issues” at the site from a number of different sources, including protected disclosures and a breach notification submitted to it by CHI.

“This formal inquiry will examine CHI’s compliance with their GDPR obligations, in particular relating to the security of personal data and the processes that CHI have in place for managing physical records at CHI (Tallaght),” the statement said.

On the day after the unannounced inspection, Dr Turlough Bolger, a consultant in emergency medicine, sent an email to staff at the hospital highlighting concerns expressed by the commission.

“The report will be received in the coming weeks but they expressed concern regarding the number of charts in the room yesterday (about 320 charts) and the amount of loose pages with patient details,” his email states.

“I expect that the recommendations will be wide-ranging and damaging to CHI at Tallaght.”

Dr Bolger said he appreciated the “hard work” made by staff to reduce the number of outstanding discharge charts in recent weeks, which had seen a “significant reduction” from 900 to 600 charts.

“I have said repeatedly that there needs to be a sustainable approach to this issue. Ultimately, as the accountable officer in CHI at Tallaght, I am responsible for the overall situation regarding medical records.”

Dr Bolger said, as the accountable officer, he “cannot rely on blitzes to clear backlogs as routine”.

In order to clear the current backlog, Dr Bolger said he had requested that four nonconsultant hospital doctors be allocated to discharges daily. He added that there needed to be “an emphasis on the use of the confidential shredding bin for most of the loose pages”.

A spokeswoman for CHI said “immediate measures” were taken after the unannounced inspection to reduce potential risks, “including reinforcing physical safeguards and engaging directly with staff”.

“Additional actions will follow, as appropriate, in line with our internal procedures and any recommendations issued by the DPC as part of its broader oversight,” she said.

The spokeswoman added that CHI was transitioning to a “fully digital health records system and, once complete, this will significantly reduce reliance on paper charts”.