Health survey: Almost one in every two adults in the State believes there are still not enough safeguards to prevent another organ retention scandal, according to research published yesterday.
The survey of 2,000 people, by the Health Services Research Centre at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland for the Department of Health, found 46 per cent were not confident there were enough safeguards to prevent another similar controversy.
Some 51 per cent believed doctors did not seek consent for retaining organs because they did not want the added trouble of having to ask families. And 78 per cent said they were dissatisfied with the response of the hospitals concerned and how they dealt with the families involved when the controversy was uncovered.
Some 70 per cent considered the Department of Health's response to be inadequate but less than half had heard of the Dunne inquiry which was set up to investigate the retention of organs by Irish hospitals. Over one-third said the families concerned should be compensated.