HSE Orders Formal Investigation Into Death Of Patient At UHL Last Year

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The Health Service Executive has ordered a formal investigation into the death of a 16-year-old girl at University Hospital Limerick last year.

Today marks the first anniversary of the death of Aoife Johnston, from Shannon in Co Clare, who died from meningitis in the hospital last December.

A report into her death was compiled by a special review team and based on the findings of this report  CEO of the HSE Bernard Gloster says  questions of accountability need to be addressed.

Former Chief Justice Mr Justice Frank Clarke has been selected to conduct a formal investigation into the circumstances of Ms Johnston’s death.

Ms Johnston’s family welcomed, albeit belatedly, the publication and delivery of the report prepared by the review committee following their investigation.

Nenagh Needs Its A&E campaign group is calling  for the resignation or removal of both the CEO and the Chief Clinical Director of the UL hospital group.

The campaign group, part of the wider Mid West Hospital Campaign Group, says there have been persistent failures and a critical need for accountability in the hospital group.

The group says the call is not solely motivated by any one specific case but rather by the broader pattern of failures and systemic issues at the UL Hospitals Group.

The Group highlights that the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, quoted in  a weekend newspaper says that “despite receiving the largest budget and resources of any hospital in the country, UHL has failed to improve its patient flow.”

Nenagh Needs it’s A&E group, says it’s “ultimate goal remains the full reversal of the discredited and failed reconfiguration policy that downgraded Emergency Departments at Ennis, St John’s (Limerick), and Nenagh hospitals” in 2009.