Beaumont Hospital reps to meet family of late Gerry Feeney to address 'failings in his care'
The hospital apologised to the family as an independent review found Mr Feeney had not been treated with dignity in the last weeks of his life.
A photograph taken by a relative last December showed Mr Feeney wearing a stained hospital gown pulled up to his hips. An incontinence pad he was wearing was undone, leaving him exposed.
Beaumont Hospital initiated an independent review last February after receiving a complaint from a member of the patient’s family.
Mr Feeney, who had Parkinson’s disease, died in a nursing home on January 31, three weeks after being discharged from Beaumont.
The review was carried out by a team that included medical and nursing experts and a member of a patient review body.
Review group chairman Dr Barry MacKellar said while Mr Feeney’s condition, as seen in the photograph, was “distressing and unacceptable”, it was not a fair reflection of the general standard of care provided.
“However, we have identified failures which have to be acknowledged and which resulted in a failure to protect (the patient’s) dignity,” said Dr MacKellar.
The hospital wants to meet Mr Feeney’s family to assure them the issues arising from the investigation were being dealt with at a senior level.
Stephen McMahon from the Irish Patients Association, who has been supporting the family, has asked Health Minister Leo Varadkar to meet them.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he hoped Mr Feeney’s death would not be in vain, adding that patient care had to be of priority importance.
“This was a most unfortunate case. Hopefully his death won’t be in vain,” Mr Kenny said yesterday.
Mr Feeney’s niece, Ann-Maria Feeney, said she felt exhausted by the whole process, saying it had been an uphill battle all the way.
However, she could not accept her uncle had been left unattended because of staff shortages.
“I don’t believe a nurse should have to walk by a patient. I believe that Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, would be horrified if she had travelled into the future and saw people being left to choose between one patient and another. That’s unacceptable,” she said.
The Feeney family said in a statement that they were deeply disturbed by the lack of management and staff accountability on the ward where Mr Feeney was a patient.
Leaving an unidentified agency healthcare assistance responsible for patients in a six-bay section of a ward was unacceptable, they said.
Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation general secretary Liam Doran said patient care was being missed every day because of staff shortages.
He told RTÉ radio that he did not want to minimise in any way the indignity done to Mr Feeney, but that there were inevitable consequences when wards were understaffed and people just could not provide the care needs in an optimum time, in the proper way.
