Unreliable service is ‘a horror story’, says father

MEADHBH McGivern’s father has said that he was shocked at a report’s finding that no single body had overall responsibility for co-ordinating travel plans for patients requiring transplant surgery in Britain.

Joe McGivern yesterday expressed concern that the report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) had concluded that the system for arranging such flights was not designed to be reliable.

“That is the stuff of horror stories,” remarked Mr McGivern.

He claimed a lot of bad decisions had been made by the various agencies involved in trying to organise an aircraft to fly his daughter, Meadhbh (14) to London. However, he acknowledged that nobody had acted with malice and many people had made desperate attempts to arrange a flight for his family.

“Nobody intentionally blocked us from getting to England. It was just a complete and utter failure of the service to provide a system to safely transport patients waiting for transplantation,” said Mr McGivern.

“But it’s hard not to think what might have been,” he remarked.

Mr McGivern said that Meadhbh’s health is unchanged as she continues to suffer from progressive liver failure and she remains on the high priority waiting list for a liver transplant at King’s College Hospital in London.

He believed his daughter, who is in her second year on the waiting list, now holds the record length of time by an Irish patient waiting for such an operation.

He welcomed the HIQA report but said it would not mean anything if its recommendations were not implemented.

Although Mr McGivern said he hoped there would be no repeat of what happened if they receive another alert about an organ donor, he revealed that the family had made alternative travel arrangements in case all Air Corps or Irish Coast Guard aircraft were unavailable again.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) said its National Ambulance Service is now the only agency that has the responsibility for arranging the use of such aircraft.

The HSE said the Air Corps and Irish Coast Guard will provide it with updates twice daily about the availability or unavailability of their fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.

The HSE and Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin, said they fully supported the recommendations of the HIQA report and would work towards their implementation.

They said a revised protocol for patient transfers had been agreed with all the relevant agencies

“This is the first time in our experience that an urgent transfer like this has failed,” said the HSE’s National Ambulance Service director, Robert Morton.

Our Lady’s said that the hospital had developed an individual transport plan for each patient on the waiting list for transplant operations who are living at home.

Health Minister James Reilly said the report set out the need for a single, central control system for making aeromedical transport arrangements for transplant patients and their families.

“The missed opportunity represented by the case of Meadhbh McGivern must not be allowed to happen again,” said Dr Reilly.

The Irish Patient’s Association praised the McGivern family for bringing their experience to public attention and their role in helping to establish the HIQA inquiry.