Martin expected to grant call for further inquiry

HEALTH Minister Micheál Martin is expected to agree to the request made by Róisín Ruddle’s parents for an independent inquiry into their daughter’s death.

The minister is also to meet the parents of the two-year-old girl who died after her heart operation was postponed over the coming days.

Gerard Ruddle and Helen Quain-Ruddle from Ballingarry, Co Limerick, said the still unpublished official report on the death of their daughter was not enough.

They have called on Minister Martin to set up an independent inquiry into events surrounding their daughter’s death.

It is now understood the minister has no problem with the parents’ request for an inquiry but is anxious to meet them to establish the best way for the investigation to proceed.

Róisín died in her mother’s arms on July 1, just hours after she was discharged from Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.

Her heart operation had to be postponed the previous day because of a lack of intensive care nurses. The hospital is short 45 intensive care nurses despite exhaustive recruitment campaigns in recent years.

After reading the report Mr Martin described the death of the toddler as a cause of great regret and upset. “It is something that we would want to avoid into the future,” he said.

Dympna Donnelly of Heart Children Ireland said they would welcome an independent inquiry into Róisín’s death.

She said the parents’ support group was also anxious to see the report that also outlines how the hospital has been funded in the past three years.

Fine Gael’s Dan Neville said the minister should use the same criteria used for the independent investigation concerning the death of Bronagh Livingston in December 2002.

That inquiry’s conclusion was totally opposite to the conclusions of the North Eastern Health Board, Mr Nevill pointed out.

Meanwhile, Crumlin Hospital has informed the National Treatment Purchase Fund it will have 35 children who will require cardiac surgery from September. Arrangements are now being made for 10 of the children to be treated in Britain and 25 in Baltimore in the US.

The children will be treated in hospitals that Crumlin has had referral arrangements with in the past.

The hospital had got the waiting time for heart surgery to a manageable three months before Christmas last year but it had started increase because of staff reductions and budgetary constraints.

Heart Children Ireland said they would welcome the move as a short term measure.

“Parents will go along with the arrangement but it does increase the stress that they are already under. It is not a satisfactory long term solution,” said Ms Donnolly.

Parents were very concerned that the arrangement was being used as another stop-gap measure to control waiting lists.

“There has to be more long-term planning so that sufficient facilities are in place to avoid these kind of problems,” she said.