Father: HSE staff concealed truth of our baby’s death

The parents of a little boy who died shortly after his birth were kept in the dark about what had happened by HSE staff, including two of the architects of the HSE’s open disclosure policy.

The claim was made by Mark Molloy whose infant son, also Mark, died on January 24, 2012, at the Midlands Regional Hospital, Portlaoise, shortly after he was born. Mark Snr and his wife Róisín had a tough battle with the HSE to uncover the truth of what had happened in the delivery room.

Their experience sparked several investigations into maternity services at the Portlaoise hospital, one of which is still ongoing.

Mark’s comments were made at a hearing of the joint health committee yesterday as part of a pre-legislative scrutiny on the ‘Open Disclosure’ provisions in the Civil Liability (Amendment) Bill.

Mr Molloy questioned how “top-down management” in the HSE would “push out open disclosure across the board” when “they don’t comply with it themselves”.

Mr Molloy, who was speaking as a representative of the Irish Patients Association (IPA) said for open disclosure to work it would “have to be on a statutory footing”.

Agreeing with Mr Molloy, Margaret Murphy, also representing the IPA, said open disclosure had to be mandatory, not voluntary as advocated by the State Claims Agency (SCA).

“Do not leave wriggle room. If you leave wriggle room, people, being human, will use it,” she said.

Ms Murphy lost her son, Kevin, as a result of medical error, and she too fought a hard battle to establish the truth.

IPA director Stephen McMahon asked: ”Who is best served by the establishment’s current position, that there should not be a statutory obligation for the patient to be told?”

Ciarán Breen, director of the SCA, said their view is that voluntary open disclosure is the optimal approach, although he later conceded that if it is made mandatory, they would work with it.

The committee also heard from the Irish Medical Organisation, whose president Dr John Duddy said while there is “an ethical or moral obligation” on clinicians to “go to administrators when they have concerns” there is no such obligation on administrators to follow up on those concerns.

Both the IMO and the Irish Nurses Organisation said health service managers should be subject to the same level of oversight as nurses and doctors. While they have to defend themselves before the Medical Council or the Nursing and Midwifery Board when things go wrong, there is no such burden on management.

There is, therefore, a fear among nurses and doctors of making an apology when things went wrong.

Under the open disclosure provisions proposed, an apology and expression of regret cannot be interpreted as an admission of liability and therefore cannot be used in litigation against the person making the disclosure.