Tag Archives: HSE

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Outside Tallaght Hospital, Dublin 24

Peter Fitzpatrick, a patient representative on the National Clinical Advisory Group, is standing as Independent candidate in Dublin South West constitutency.

And putting his money (above) where his mouth is.

Peter writes:

Mismanagement and short term policy making over the last twenty years has led us to a point where our Health services are in a permanent state of crisis and can no longer safely treat the population.

I am using my limited resources to take a simple message to the streets of Dublin South West, it’s time to put Health above regular party politics.

All the party manifestos have now been published – 8 parties, 8 different directions on Health.
….All of these shifts in policy are hugely counterproductive. We are going back on ourselves, literally in circles – we need to come together on this, Health is too important.

No single party has the answers. We need one plan, across the parties with the input of those that work in the service. Doctors and Nurses are struggling to hold the system together while one Minister works to reverse the policy of another.

One National Strategy, above party politics, to be implemented regardless of whatever Government is in power.

Unless we get that, we will never make any real progress.

FIGHT!

Peter Fitzpatrick

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Minister for Health Leo Varadkar and  Dr Rhona Mahony at the opening of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, Dublin, February 2015

Not so fast.

A report by the Health Information and Quality Authority on the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street in Dublin has found overcrowding and very poor hygiene. To wit:

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Oh.

READ: Report of inspections at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street

HIQA finds poor hygiene and overcrowding at Holles Street hospital (RTÉ)

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Director General of the HSE Tony O’Brien

You may recall how the HSE repeatedly told the Public Accounts Committee it had apologised to ‘Grace’ – the mute woman with intellectual disabilities who suffered extreme physical and sexual abuse while she was in a foster care home from 1983 until 2009.

The Irish Examiner, on Monday, January 25, reported that the whistleblowers involved in the case claimed the HSE, in fact, had not apologised to Grace.

On Saturday, January 30, the HSE released a statement admitting no official apology had been given to ‘Grace’ or her mother – or the 46 other people who had contact with the foster home over the years.

Further to this, Fianna Fáil TD and chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, John McGuinness, on Today with Seán O’Rourke, said:

“We got a letter into the Public Accounts Committee, from the HSE, which basically rubbished the report that was written by the Irish Examiner, and referring to the apology as one of ‘for the poor quality of service’. These individuals, allegedly, were raped, abused and treated in the most abominable way and then, after that, we received, the following week, we received, the Public Accounts Committee received a letter from the agency concerned and they said they were being treated as despicable today, their treatment, as it was on day one when they raised this issue. What does that say about the protectors of those who are weakest, the HSE?.”

“Those that discovered this, that were professional enough and brave enough to come forward, did so, the whistleblowers. Unfortunately, the system within the HSE served them very badly and the whistleblower legislation, it would appear, is not worth the paper it’s written on. Because the whistlebowers fear for their professional futures.”

“We want to hear [from HSE director general Tony O’Brien] the full truth, we want to hear him tell us exactly what he knows from beginning to end, as much as he can – because we know there’s a Garda investigation going on. What we don’t want is for them to hide behind that investigation…”

HSE director general Tony O’Brien will appear before the Public Accounts Committee at noon today.

Related: Foster care scandal: The drip-drip of misinformation and mistruth (Irish Examiner)

Previously: No Saving Grace

‘What Was In The Records?’

Mark Stedman/Rollingnews

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 Solicitor Catherine Ghent

Some 47 children, many who had physical and mental disabilities, were placed in foster care with an abusive family in the southeast of Ireland, between 1983 and 1995.

One woman who couldn’t speak and had intellectual disabilities was left behind after others were removed – after concerns were raised – and remained there until 2009.

The unidentified woman – referred to as Grace – suffered serious sexual abuse until her eventual removal.

In 1992, the then South Eastern Health Board became aware of concerns surrounding the family.

Further to this, RTÉ journalist Keelin Shanley spoke to solicitor Catherine Ghent on the Today with Seán O’Rourke show this morning.

Ms Ghent specialises in child protection.

Catherine Ghent: “I have to say I’m absolutely horrified, I’m horrified in relation to, and I agree with Fergus [Finlay], I’m going to call her ‘Grace’ as well. I think we need to realise these are people but there’s 47 other children and young adults as well. That is a huge amount of people to have gone through this family over what must have been a very substantial period of time for no-one, no-one to have noticed there are very clear failures. To me, the two things which really stand out are who was speaking up for these children? If they had and advocate or a representative you would expect that this would have come to light. And what I suspect is they didn’t have anyone. And, secondly, there seems to have been no oversight. So the State authorities going in, how could the placement of 47 children be sanctioned for years with no-one watching what was going on? Or no-one stopping it? And, however it came to light, and the people brave enough to go in and say ‘this has to stop’, they have to be given credit for that but it’s really remarkable as to how that was allowed to go on for so long and with so many people. And I would say a lot of lives ruined.”

Keelin Shanley: “And Catherine, from what we know, between 1983 and 1995 these 47 children were placed in the home at various times. In 1995, it came to the attention of the authorities that there was a problem with the home. Do you understand how this one particular woman, Grace, as you were calling her here, how she could have been left behind?”

Ghent: “I am absolutely flabbergasted. The only reason she must have been left behind is there must have been either a horrendous failure to pass on information, which would indicate that perhaps she didn’t have a social worker allocated at the time, I don’t know. If she did, what access were, did she have records? What was in the records? Was there adequate information sharing in relation to the social workers for the other children? If that didn’t happen, why did it not happen? Were the guards involved? There should have been a strategy meeting commissioned by the gardaí, by the social work department and, within that strategy meeting, if information previously was not passed, it should have been shared at that meeting. So everyone should have known. But I think the most important, it goes back to why we felt it was so important to change the constitution, these children need a voice. And if you are  in the care of the State, what is most striking about this is, I suspect, a lot of these people were placed on voluntary arrangements and there was no court oversight. We now have a system…”

Shanley: “Explain that Catherine – if you’re placed on a voluntary basis you don’t have to have other people involved or looking into your case?”

Ghent: “No and I think that this really has to be looked at. If a parent feels overwhelmed or under pressure and they say, ‘we just cannot care for our children’ they can sign their child into the care of the State. And if they do that, the matter does not go to court. And I think that’s unacceptable. Because then what you have is no independent monitoring. You have social workers who are there, in the grind, who perhaps have to go to court in other cases and the reality is if you have to answer and go to a different body and you have to make the case as to why the child should be in care – you get the information, you visit the child, you understand the harm that would occur if the child was not in the placement and you bring that to the court. If they’re in voluntary care, and I’ve seen children in voluntary care for up to 15 and 16 years...”

Shanley: “Without investigation..”

Ghent: “No oversight.”

Shanley: “Obviously, we don’t know the details of this case, we don’t know if this particular woman was in voluntary care or not but is this still happening? That people are being placed in  voluntary care with no oversight?”

Ghent: “Yes, yes.”

Shanley: “At all?”

Ghent: “Yes. It absolutely is. My view is that no child should be in voluntary care for no more than six, at a maximum, eight weeks because it’s such a serious interference with the child’s rights. It’s a statement that there’s clearly something wrong in relation to care and that is not to blame parents, that’s to say this child has needs which primarily seem to be protection needs. But voluntary care is alive and well at this stage, and sometimes there’s a benign view taken that it’s better to cooperate with parents and if you go into the court arena, it can all get adversarial so therefore this is a means of avoiding that. And that’s a well-intentioned motive  but the practical effect of that is without oversight no-one is checking it and, without oversight, the practical reality is that those cases, in my experience, slip as priorities and that’s when you get children left in situations where they shouldn’t be.”

Shanley: “It would seem from what Fergus Finlay was saying earlier, on Morning Ireland, that when the bulk of the children being cared for in this home were removed, that concerns had been raised, that some kind of appeal went through whereby Grace was allowed to stay with this family. Does that tally with the notion of voluntary care? That if it’s voluntary, you wouldn’t be subject to the same oversight as the other cases?”

Ghent: “It is, I mean, if they were subject to a care order, the child should have a voice, so the child should have a guardian ad liteum and the guardian ad liteum would be able to analyse and do an independent, not a full assessment of the foster care system, but analyse the assessments done by the social work department. The child, or young person, would have a voice within that appeals process and that’s what’s absolutely striking. These children have no voice…”

Later

Ghent: And I’d really like people to actually say to politicians on the doorstep what are you going to do to protect our children so that our Grace doesn’t happen again?… If it’s the case that the State is avoiding the word ‘apology’ for the purposes of a defence perhaps in civil litigation then that really needs to be looked at because we cannot be any defence to a child or young person left in the circumstances that this girl was. There just cannot be.”

Ms Shanley reported that no representative from the HSE was available to speak on the show. She also reported that the show invited Health Minister Leo Varadkar, Children’s Minister Dr James Reilly and Junior Health Minister Kathleen Lynch to speak but all of them were unavailable.

Listen back in full here

Listen to Fergus Finlay’s interview on Morning Ireland here

HSE writes formal apology to foster care abuse victim (Fiachra Ó Cionnaith, Irish Examiner, January 27, 2016)

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The grotto at Our Lady’s Hospice, Harold’s Cross, Dublin

A dying parent.

The returning emigrant son.

And end-of-life care In Ireland.

Ken writes:

I currently reside in the US, where I teach college full time. In recent weeks I have returned to Dublin to be with my sick Mother. She has cancer and is currently dying. How long she has is unknown, but we have been made aware that time is short, perhaps months, but some days it seems like she could go any time.

I am writing because I find myself appalled at the lack of end-of-life care in this country. This is my first experience of an up-close and personal family death.

I came with a view to spending a few weeks with my mother, to offer comfort and support and lend a hand where needs be. I now find myself as primary care-giver, at home, with no end in sight, unable to return to my family in the US because there is nowhere for my mother to go.

I have brothers here, and they are very good in terms of offering time, but both have commitments that preclude them from being here full-time, 24/7, which is currently what my mother needs.

She is not eating, barely drinking, and needs assistance with all the most basic and mundane daily tasks. I am not trained for this kind of care, and there are issues of dignity that one finds very difficult to over-come. I feel like I am alone and the system, whatever exists of it, has left us to our own devices.

My mother has experienced some brief periods of respite at Our Ladies Hospice at Harold’s Cross, and her current palliative team visit and do their best, as far as know, but all the emphasis is on taking pills that seem to have little positive effect on a dying person.

There appears to be no concern for the fact that a woman has been left to die in her bed with a son who is shell-shocked not entirely equipped to handle the enormity of the situation.

My father is at home also, but he is eighty two years old, and physically and emotionally unable to be of much assistance.

Today I asked the visiting nurse what the picture would be had I not been here, would an eighty two year old man be expected to deal with all the things I currently have to deal with?

The response was a shrug of the shoulders and some reference to cuts and the economy. Now that banks have all our money, it seems there is nothing left for the dying. We have literally been bled to death. I can’t imagine things having been that much different, one hundred years ago.

As things stand, I feel enormously relieved that I no longer live in the ‘progressive’ Ireland of 2015. This however, is no comfort in the short term.

Pic: OLH

2015-05-11Lisa Naylor

Niamh Kelly writes:

I am writing on behalf on my friend Lisa Naylor, who is too unwell to write herself. Lisa has been battling depression and an eating disorder for many years, and has been surviving quite well until recently. Four weeks ago her community team diagnosed her with a major depressive episode and recommended that she goes into inpatient care to maintain her own safety, as she is extremely suicidal and has tried multiple times to end her life.
She has tried both the public and private system and due to overcrowding and paperwork, four weeks later she is at home alone all day every day fighting every minute to survive. She is tired and has given up. She no longer wants the pain of life and cannot keep begging for help only to be turned away at every avenue.
Below is a copy of an email she sent three days ago to the Minister for Health and the Mental Health Commission.I, and all of Lisa’s loved ones are praying and fighting her case as best we can and would really appreciate if you could highlight this issue.

My name is Lisa Naylor, I am 30 years old and I suffer from depression and an eating disorder. I have been struggling with this current period of illness for over a year and have attempted suicide multiple times and been hospitalised twice; once in John of Gods and once in Lois Bridges. I am currently under the care of Coolock Mental Health Clinic, and have been put under home care as I was seen as too unwell to attend my local day hospital.

Four weeks ago I advised my registrar that I could no longer see a way out of my depression and could not guarantee my safety. After extensive interviews with my doctor, nurses and a local consultant it was decided I needed a short stay in hospital in order to ensure my safety and give my mind a rest from the constant struggle with my self harm and suicidal impulses.

Luckily, I have health insurance, and referrals were immediately sent to St John of Gods and St Patrick’s Hospitals asking for admission for a major depressive episode. In the last four weeks I have spent my days fighting against every fibre of my being to give in to the never ending voices in my head, urging me to end my pain.

I have been self harming almost daily and spend hours face down in a toilet, forcing myself to throw up whatever I have eaten. I feel no joy, I feel no contentment, I feel nothing but self loathing and pain. All day, everyday.

I have been told that as a result of my eating disorder I must wait until the end of May for an assessment in St Pat’s, that I cannot be given a bed to keep me safe until after this date. St John of God’s refuses to answer multiple phone calls and voice mails about an admission.

I have been advised that the public ward in Beaumont is not an option as they are at crisis point. My very dedicated HSE team have literally run out of options and can give me no answers or reassurances.

I am 30, I am suffering, and I have nothing left to give. It took everything I had to tell my doctor how I felt and it was all for nothing. I am going to die because I asked for help and nobody answered.

I am not sending you this email for pity, or dramatic effect, but to highlight the fact that something is very wrong with our mental health system. I am going to die because of paperwork. Please, do not let this happen to someone else.

Lisa Naylor

Down the hole, with a bumped head and bruised soul (Lisa Naylor)

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From left:  James Walker, Mary Dunnion, Martin Turner and Phelim Quinn at today’s publication of the Patient Safety Investigation Report into services at Portlaoise Hospital in the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) offices, Dublin Tony O’Brien (above), Director General of the The Health Service Executive (HSE) at Dr Steevens’ Hospital this afternoon.

In Portlaoise Hospital, where a number of babies died in controversial circumstances, mothers and fathers received the remains of their newborns in a metal box on a wheelchair covered with a white sheet and pushed by mortuary staff.

In one case the box was not big enough and the dead baby boy was squeezed in, the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) revealed.

Another reported how hospital staff told her the practice [metal boxes] was in place to stop mothers becoming upset and others revealed how keepsakes of their babies were either not given back to them or returned incomplete.

A mother who lost a child but was reprimanded for crying on a ward with a medic telling her it would upset other mothers who had delivered healthy babies.In another instance staff avoided going into a grieving mother’s room after her baby had died.

Some said they were told their baby had been stillborn or died instantly at birth but documentation or reports obtained at a later date revealed conflicting information.

Portlaoise Hospital: Shock report claims dead baby was squeezed into metal box and given to parents (The Irish Daily Mirror)

HSE failed to act on Portlaoise patient safety risks, Hiqa says (Irish Times)

(Sam Boal/Photocall Ireland)

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Health Minister Leo Varadkar speaking in the Dáil in February

Catherine Reilly, in the Medical Independent, writes:

“Serious breaches of patient confidentiality have emerged in the process through which terminations of pregnancy are notified to the Minister for Health under abortion legislation, the Medical Independent (MI) has learned.”

“Some notification forms were not completed in compliance with the legislation, “with missing or incorrect information being supplied, and including serious breaches of patient confidentiality,” the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Tony Holohan informed the HSE Director General Mr Tony O’Brien in September 2014.”

“Under the legally-required notifications process, only Parts B (Information Relating to the Medical Procedure) and C (Information Relating to the Person Keeping Record) should be sent to the Minister for Health. Part A (Patient Details), which provides for the full name of the patient, their usual place of residence and date of birth, must be retained by the hospital.

“MI asked the Department of Health and the HSE in how many instances Part A (Patient Details) was sent to the Minister and how many of these instances involved disclosure of the woman’s name. Neither would comment on these questions.”

Serious privacy breaches uncovered following pregnancy terminations (Catherine Reilly, Medical Independent)