A Cork-based medical supplies company has strongly denied it held the Health Service Executive (HSE) to ransom by seeking more than €145,000 to “maintain the integrity” of sensitive patient data, the High Court has heard.
Myles Murray, chief executive of PMD Device Solutions Ltd, told the court on Monday that the data is not the company’s to sell and neither he nor the company ever threatened to sell it.
The company was “managing” the patient data in question on behalf of the HSE, he said.
Mr Murray was responding to claims made last week by the HSE ahead of securing a short-term injunction against PMD, which is a subsidiary of Swedish company PMD Devices Solutions AB.
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According to court documents, the company previously held several contracts with the HSE for respiratory monitoring services – including storing patient data and providing respiratory rate sensors for use in hospitals across the State.
Those contracts were terminated in December 2024, and the company is now facing liquidation, the court heard.
The HSE claims that, after termination of the contracts, PMD sought a payment of €145,000 (excluding VAT) to “maintain the integrity” of the patient data it holds.
The HSE alleges Mr Murray wrote in an email last January 13th that third parties “will be able to begin bidding and purchasing” the company’s assets “within 12 days”, after which the company “will have no ability to stand over the integrity of the data”.
The HSE claims this was an “outrageous attempt” to hold it to ransom.
On Monday, Mr Murray said that, following the HSE’s request for transfer and deletion of the data, PMD sought the money to pay for external certification of the deletion of the data from the company’s servers.
In its case, the HSE alleges PMD has “no contractual entitlement to payment in return for compliance with its obligations to return or delete the [HSE’s] data, and to maintain its integrity”.
Mr Justice Brian Cregan said the parties might have to deal with this issue between themselves. He noted the company is on the brink of liquidation.
Mr Murray said the company has been “proactive” in seeking to engage with the HSE. When noted by the judge that the company did not respond to the health service’s pre-litigation letter, Mr Murray said he had communicated a response to solicitors acting for the company in another action. The HSE did not receive this response, the court heard.
Mr Murray was permitted to address the court himself, after saying the company cannot afford legal representation.
Mr Justice Cregan extended orders he made last week restraining PMD from selling or transferring the data or providing any third party access to it. The orders also require the business to preserve and maintain the data.
The judge also ordered the company to provide a list of servers, clouds or other storage areas that hold the HSE data. The company must transfer the data to the HSE and, following that, delete the data, subject to the consent of the HSE.
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