HSE withholds details of serious incidents

The HSE has refused to release details of cases examined by its serious incident management team — because of the sheer number of issues involved.

The State body has ruled that “in excess of 41,203” emails, letters, and attachments sent to and from the sub-group since Jan 2010 cannot be released under freedom of information because the 32-month range of the search would impact on its work.

Among the cases which occurred during the Jan 2010 to Aug 2012 period were at least 13 incidents of specific child health concerns; ambulance service issues; and the Tallaght Hospital X-ray delays scandal.

Revelations that an unregistered nurse worked at the sexual assault treatment unit at Letterkenny Hospital for a sustained period — potentially putting forensic evidence from 25 rape victims into doubt — are also covered in that timeframe.

The FoI request sought all correspondence relating to the serious incident management team; a breakdown of cases examined; and a copy of documents relating to these cases, including their outcomes.

However, the official HSE response said allowing the request “would by reason of the number or nature” of the records “cause a substantial and unreasonable interference” with the group’s work.

It also said a breakdown of all cases examined since Jan 2010 could not be provided as “the record concerned does not exist or cannot be found”.

The block on the release of the serious incident files came without any estimated search and retrieval fee, a necessary part of FoI requests rejected due to the number of records involved.

It said a third part of the request — which sought all documents related to the cases examined, including the outcomes — would not be released either, as this may “prejudice the effectiveness of such enquiries”.

“It is necessary to protect the deliberative process of the public body and to ensure that all those concerned, both internally and externally, can submit to the investigative process in an open and transparent manner,” according to the letter, refusing to release any details on any cases.

The only files the HSE was willing to detail were two high-profile scandals which have already drawn significant attention after being revealed in the public domain.

These include the miscarriage misdiagnosis crisis revealed in summer 2010, which led to the HSE’s Apr 2011 National Miscarriage Review Report.

This document confirmed that, between 2006 and 2011, 18 women were wrongly told at public and private hospitals that their perfectly healthy pregnancies had terminated.

A further six women who experienced similar system flaws before 2006 also insis-ted on having their cases re-examined.

Of these 24 women — all of whom were wrongly told they had miscarried — six underwent invasive dilation and curettage after flawed ultrasounds wrongly said their foetus had been lost.

Two of these women lost their pregnancies. Eight more women were given abortive drugs, while others were given inappropriately early ultrasounds which failed to record a healthy foetal heartbeat.

In one case, a woman had to undergo six ultrasounds before proving she still had a healthy foetus.

The only other serious incident management team case the HSE detailed relates to liver transplant patient Meadhbh McGivern — a case which had also been previously released in full.

On Jul 2, 2011, a life-saving liver transplant for the then 14-year-old girl was cancelled due to transport issues. She underwent the 13-hour surgery at King’s College Hospital, London, in Sep 2011 after public outrage over the cancellation.