There must be a reckoning for the political system, which failed to respond to an obvious crisis in the midwest, and allowed the population there to be put at risk
There must be accountability, at political and hospital management level, for the circumstances at University Hospital Limerick that led to the tragic death of Aoife Johnston, according to Social Democrats health spokesperson Róisín Shortall.
Deputy Shortall was commenting following the publication of a report this evening, by former chief Justice Frank Clarke, into Ms Johnston’s death.
“Notwithstanding the shortcomings of the Clarke report, when it comes to its inability to make adverse findings against named individuals, two important conclusions can be reached.
“Systems and pathways of care which should have been in place in the hospital, like the sepsis pathway and escalation pathway, were either absent or deficient. This is a clear failure of hospital management.
“It is also clear that political accountability, for chronic overcrowding and a lack of capacity at UHL, is required. The report notes that other emergency departments in the midwest were closed before capacity was increased at UHL and, even today, capacity at the hospital is below what it should have been before those facilities could be safely closed.
“The reality is, there has been a persistent and outrageous denial of the shortcomings of the reconfiguration process in the midwest from successive governments for many years. The current Health Minister is just now, 15 years after reconfiguration, examining whether a level 3 hospital is required for the region.
“As it stands, the UL Hospitals Group is the only one in the country without a level 3 hospital; has an inadequate number of beds; a chronic shortage of consultants; and only one ED. Overcrowding, and threats to patient safety, are an inevitable consequence of this chronic lack of capacity.
“Regrettably, continuing overcrowding and a lack of capacity at the hospital means there is a real risk of another avoidable tragedy, like the appalling death of Aoife Johnston, recurring. We cannot and should not tolerate that.
“There must be accountability for those in management responsible for deficient or missing pathways of care, like the sepsis protocol, at UHL that contributed to Aoife’s death.
“There must also now be a reckoning for the political system, which has failed to respond to an obvious crisis in the midwest and allowed the population there to be put at risk.”