Hamilton Health Sciences ordered to hand over kids’ tonsil surgery records

Ontario’s privacy commissioner has ordered Hamilton Health Services (HHS) to hand over records after two kids died following tonsil surgery in 2024.

According to an interim order made on Jan. 28, 2025, the hospital denied all requests for access to records relating to the deaths of two pediatric patients in May or June 2024, prompting the order.

One child died the day after a routine tonsil and adenoid procedure at the hospital, and a second died nine days after their initial procedure. Both were discharged from the hospital after their surgeries.

HHS temporarily paused tonsil and adenoid surgeries for children 17 and under in June and resumed the program in October.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) of Ontario had made three Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act requests back in August, which the hospital denied.

The order reads that the hospital refused to provide copies of the records “due to the high sensitivity of these files.”

The commissioner says that while the information may be sensitive, that it “does not amount to a valid explanation as to why the records can not be provided to the IPC.”

HHS had until Tuesday to produce the documents needed to mediate in order to effect a settlement.

HHS told CHCH News in a statement that it had been and remains committed to full collaboration with the IPC on this matter.

“Providing the records outlined in the order has always been our intended course of action, and they were submitted to the IPC earlier this week,” reads the statement.

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