Call for public inquiry into ‘serious incidents’ at University Hospital Limerick

A PUBLIC inquiry into all “serious incidents” recorded in the University Hospital Limerick has been called for by a local TD.

Deputy Richard O’Donoghue, who was speaking in the Dail just before Christmas, claimed the HSE's incident recording system “is not fit for purpose”.

“It is dangerous and unreliable. After a public inquiry, I will call for an external body to investigate all serious incidents in the health system in Ireland that does not involve any past or present HSE member.

“I have asked the Minister for his help on more than one occasion and I am doing so again. We have serious incidents that are being reported but not investigated. Serious incidents have been reported and are being looked at by HSE employees even if there has been a death.

“After raising the issue of cover-ups in UHL, I was recently asked by reporters if I could send them information I had on this. Here is the piece for the media to understand. I submitted three incidents on UHL more than 12 months ago, and the HSE wrote to ask me if I could disclose the information. It already had it on file for 12 months,” said Mr O’Donoghue, who added that they “are trying to ensure patient safety”.

“If there are incidents, they should be reported properly and we will try to protect patients in the future. If the minister is not willing to ask people from outside the HSE network to investigate cases, we will never rectify the problems we have in Ireland.

“It was done in the UK. Political people pushed for it. Independent investigations were conducted and hospitals were held to account for the mismanagement of incidents that were reported and never dealt with,” said Mr O’Donoghue, who concluded by asking the minister to investigate UHL using independent people and “to hold people to account for mismanagement, which has been raised with the minister and the HSE by health professionals”.

“We must help them to make sure we can stop the occurrence of future deaths or serious incidents in UHL,” said the TD.

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Mr O’Donoghue also spoke of an article he read on the internet which was written by a former consultant in UHL. “He refers to 140 incidents he recorded on Q-Pulse in UHL that were never followed up by management,” he said.

The University Limerick Hospital Group was asked for comment by Limerick Live. A spokesperson said the matters raised in the article mentioned by Deputy O’Donoghue have been the “subject of a comprehensive review process”.

“Allegations in relation to incident reporting were previously made by the deputy in the Oireachtas Health Committee on September 21 and again at a virtual briefing we organised for TDs and senators on September 30.

“We have written to Deputy O'Donoghue twice since September 30 looking for more detailed information so we can examine these claims. We await a response from the deputy,” said the spokesperson. They said they encourage all staff to report any clinical incident or near-miss through the hospital incident management system.

“All near-misses and incidents raised are followed up on by the Quality Risk and Patient Safety Department to ensure that learning is identified and necessary improvements made.

“We have an ongoing training program for all staff on how to raise an incident. This is underpinned by a no-blame and just culture approach. It is essential that any member of staff who is aware of a near-miss records it on the system so any appropriate action, learning or opportunity for improvement may be taken,” concluded the ULHG spokesperson.