HSE chief says Aoife Johnston report provides ‘pathway to accountability’
By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA
HSE chief Bernard Gloster has said a “very detailed” report that examined the death of Aoife Johnston at a Limerick hospital will provide “a pathway to accountability”.
The 16-year-old died on December 19th 2022 after waiting 12 hours in the hospital’s emergency department for treatment for sepsis.
An independent investigation led by retired chief justice Frank Clarke found that the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) that night was “grossly overcrowded” and there was a “lack of clarity” on sepsis protocols.
Asked whether the report failed to provide accountability, Mr Gloster said he “wouldn’t at all” agree with that.
Mr Gloster said that accountability had to be addressed by him as the employer and not by Mr Justice Clarke.
He said the accountability process had begun in relation to “several people”.
Mr Gloster said: “Were it not for Mr Justice Clarke’s report, which I now have, I would not have been able or in a position to formulate the concerns I now have based on the evidence and to commence investigations under our disciplinary procedures – which I have, and can I say the commencement of those is very significant in the lives and careers of those individuals.
“So the fact that the report itself doesn’t make a finding against somebody is fundamentally different to the fact that the report is exceptionally effective in providing what I call a pathway to accountability.”
Asked whether UHL was safe for people to attend, Mr Gloster said that in the context of any hospital that goes under a patient safety assessment, the aim is to make it “safer”.
“The construct of 100 per cent safe all of the time in healthcare is not really the appropriate point, it’s continuously improving and making safer,” he said.
“While things have improved, it’s clear also, the support team report shows that there’s still quite a way to go.
“What the public can be assured of is, what makes a healthcare system or a public service system safer is the capability of that system to identify risk and problems and be transparent about it, which is what I am doing in this process.”
Mr Gloster added: “Notwithstanding any system concerns that I have – and I do have system concerns, and I do have concerns about how the systems are in place and how they operated in aspects of that hospital – I am saying to people today that if they require urgency care in the Midwest or their general practitioner determines that they require it, they should go to the emergency department, and the nurses and doctors and staff working in that department will attend to them.
“We’re continuing to work to improve the rest of the hospital system to be more responsive to alleviating that pressure.”