Medical Council had suggested hospital changes

THE Medical Council gave prior warning about difficulties at Cavan General Hospital which sent tragic schoolgirl Frances Sheridan home with a fatal condition after misdiagnosing her as having a tummy bug.

It emerged yesterday the Council had sent a delegation to the hospital and made recommendations for improvements in practice and procedures there before the bungling that led to the nine-year-old’s death last February.

Council President Dr John Hillery said the Council was “very concerned” at what had happened to Frances, particularly in light of its direct contact with the hospital. “We made recommendations and we had assurances that these were going to be followed up on,” he said.

A fresh delegation, headed by Dr Hillery and Council registrar, Dr John Lamont, is to make a return visit to the hospital to review the situation there in light of the North Eastern Health Board report published recently that showed up glaring failures in the assessment and treatment of Frances.

The Council pointed out, however, that they were only empowered to make such a visit under the restricted heading of “educational activities” in their capacity as the governing body that decided which hospitals were suitable to be training facilities for junior doctors.

“We cannot just go in and look around and point out the correct way something should happen. The power should be to go into any hospital, look at a situation and then, if we find something worrying, to do something about it,” said Dr Hillery.

“There are concerns about patient safety issues and patient care issues at the hospital,” he added, pledging: “Our prime duty is to patients. If we find that there are still problems we will talk to the relevant authorities even if we do not have the power to do anything ourselves.”

Dr Hillery hoped to make the return visit before the end of the month and would be contacting the health board to make arrangements without delay, but he was eager to have a lay member of the Council among the delegation also.

The current Council was only elected last month and the lay members are expected to be appointed by the Minister for Health in the coming days. The Minister is planning to bring further outside influence into the Council through an increase in the number of Council members from 24 to 35.

His draft Medical Practitioners Act also requires a gender balance in the membership for the first time, requiring a minimum of ten female members among its 24 members.