Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to meet with family of Aoife Johnston ‘soon’ 

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is set to meet with the family of Aoife Johnston, who died in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) in December 2022.

Aoife, from Shannon, died at UHL on December 19, after waiting 12 hours for treatment at its emergency department (ED).  She was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis and later developed sepsis. She was 16 years’ old.

Mr Donnelly said he would be travelling to Limerick to meet the Clare teenager’s family “soon”

“I offered to meet the family a few weeks ago, and they’ve been in touch to say they would like to take up that offer. 

“It will be soon, I will be going to Limerick to meet them, and I’m very keen to sit down with them,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

An independent investigation led by retired chief justice Frank Clarke is to examine the circumstances surrounding Aoife’s death as well as the clinical and corporate governance of the hospital.

An initial report found overcrowding in UHL’s emergency department was “endemic”, and doctor and nurse staffing levels were “insufficient”.

On Thursday, a lawyer representing Aoife’s family said the terms of reference for an investigation into her death were decided .

Damien Tansey said it was “a matter of great concern.” 

Speaking about the family’s concerns around the investigation, Mr Donnelly said he “understands exactly where they are coming from.”

“We would always want to include families in setting terms of reference for various reviews. That is normal practice.

“It doesn’t happen always the way it should, but it is the way things should always work.

“In this particular case, because this is an investigation that could result in accountability at the end, something that the HSE is criticised for not normally doing, this approach is different, it is a new approach being taken by the new chief executive, that can have accountability at the end,” he said.

When asked whether somebody could lose their job in connection with the investigation, Mr Donnelly said: “If adverse findings are made, then there are processes that might follow from this investigation.

“The advice that the HSE got was, in order to have a process whereby you could have accountability at the end, no third parties could input to the terms of reference — none of the management, none of the staff involved, none of the clinicians, and the family.

“So, at a human level, you always want to do it, but we also want a process where there can be accountability at the end.”

Mr Donnelly went on to say he had confidence in the new manager in place at UHL, but there needed to be “changes in terms of patient flow and patient management” at the hospital.

He said he raised concerns about rosters at UHL before Aoife’s death.

“When I read the report into the tragic death of Aoife Johnston, there were practices being followed in terms of rostering which I had personally raised with the hospital previously, and asked to be changed.

“And on this weekend, they certainly hadn’t been changed,” he said.

The investigation into Aoife’s death was announced after HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster received a systems analysis review (SAR) on her death which had been commissioned by the hospital’s chief clinical director.

That report specifically said national guidelines for sepsis care were not followed, and that this led “to a delay in sepsis care of 12 hours”.

It described overcrowding at the hospital as being endemic and also found there was insufficient nursing staff to provide adequate care to patients at the UHL ED on the weekend of December 17, 2022.

There was also just one emergency consultant on call for the whole weekend, and only one clinical nurse facilitator for nurse training despite having a high turnover of nurses.

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