Health board chief hits back at negative reporting about hospitals

THE chief executive of the North Eastern Health Board, at the centre of much controversy in recent years, yesterday hit back at negative reporting by the media about its hospitals, including Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda and Cavan General Hospital.

He said, after the full details surrounding disgraced obstetrician Michael Neary became known, the board had taken decisive action to prevent such incidents recurring. In a statement yesterday Paul Robinson said the full extent of the issues surrounding Dr Neary were known to the board in 2000 but were not in the public domain. He said the board could have “regarded what happened as a once-off occurrence and hope that nothing further happened” but instead decided to appoint independent risk assessors to look at its five major hospitals.

It was the first health board in Ireland to do this and the examination was completed by Healthcare Risk Resources International (HRRI) who drew up a list of recommendations on foot of detailed inspections at five hospitals: the Lourdes in Drogheda, the Louth County in Dundalk, Our Lady’s in Navan, Monaghan General and Cavan General.

Mr Robinson said the findings of HRRI reports on the sites “were detailed and comprehensive and the findings represented a major challenge for all hospital staff and also for corporate management of the board”.

In a direct reference to nine-year-old Frances Sheridan, who was sent home from Cavan General Hospital and later died, he said the review completed by an independent review group after her death “has further demonstrated the need for constant review and improvement of processes and systems for all involved in anyway in the delivery of patient care to participate fully in this process in the interests of both patients and staff”.