Poor link between services

THE Dunne family depended on a range of health and welfare services in Donegal and Wexford throughout their lives but there was little co-ordination between the various services or the professionals who provided them.

In the five years between the birth of their first child, Lean, and the family’s deaths, they were in contact with paediatricians, eye specialists, hearing specialists, child development clinics, GPs, public health nurses, social workers, community welfare officers and other personnel.

Details of this interaction is sketchy during some periods as parts of the report have been blacked out. Similarly, 15 out of 31 conclusions. mainly dealing with the HSE, are also blacked out as are seven of the 26 recommendations.

The report notes that the family’s many changes of residence – they moved seven times in Donegal and Wexford between 2002 and 2006 – made them harder to track but it says queries to the medical card section of the HSE would have revealed their current whereabouts.

The report found that the Lean, and her younger sister, Shania, had very limited contact with the Early Intervention Team (EIT) in Wexford despite the serious concerns of the EIT in Donegal. Files containing the family’s information were not passed from one team to the next.

The report says: “The system of communication within the HSE in Wexford relating to the Dunne family appeared disjointed and contributed to the failure to identify the family as one in need of extra support from health and social services.”