Patients’ voices must be heard to stop further needless deaths, warns mother

IT is a cautionary tale, the story of 21-year-old Kevin Murphy’s tragic death, precipitated by a breakdown in communication among healthcare staff.

Yet Kevin’s story and others like it would not have registered in the findings of the latest patient survey, launched yesterday, because hospital deaths and the experience of patients transferred from one hospital to another were not included. Instead, the survey logged the experiences of almost 5,000 patients, lucky enough to be discharged home, 93% of whom reported satisfaction with the services they received during their hospital stay.

In welcoming the survey, as giving a voice to patients, Margaret Murphy, Kevin’s mother, pointed out it did not include the more complicated cases, where outcomes are often fatal.