The family of 16-year-old girl Aoife Johnston, who died at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) in December 2022, are demanding the report into her death be published immediately.
Aoife Johnston, from Shannon in Co Clare, died of meningitis on December 19th, 2022, after she was referred to the UHL’s overcrowded emergency department with suspected sepsis that went untreated for over 12 hours.
An investigation into her death, conducted by former Chief Justice Frank Clarke, was completed two months ago.
Speaking on RTÉ's Drivetime, the family solicitor Damien Tansey said the Johnstons considered the Clarke report to be “utterly superficial” and felt there were “significant limitations and restrictions” on Mr Clarke’s mandate.
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Mr Tansey said the Johnston family have written to the HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster to state they will make the report they have been given public if the HSE does not. They have called for it to be published immediately and without redactions.
The Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) has also called for publication of Mr Clarke’s report.
“Its full publication, in consultation with the Johnston family, is an important next step,” a spokesperson said.
The University of Limerick Hospital Group and the HSE have previously apologised publicly to the Johnston family.
“On behalf of the HSE, I, again, would like to express our heartfelt sympathy to Aoife’s family and friends for the pain and suffering they experienced because of Aoife’s death while in our care,” Mr Gloster said.
“I want to take this opportunity to restate for the record today our unequivocal apology to them, conscious that no words of mine will take away their pain.”
The HSE said Mr Gloster has committed to publish the report of Mr Clarke in an appropriate format, which must take into account the HSE’s obligations to all parties involved, and must respect the personal and sensitive data contained in the report.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health told the programme that Minister Stephen Donnelly “supports the process put in place by the HSE CEO following from the Mr Justice Clarke report”.
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