Hospital complaints review to remain secret?

The eagerly anticipated report on the review of Letterkenny University Hospital's complaint-handling process has been received by the Ombudsman, the Inish Times can reveal.

The review was carried out by the National Director of the HSE's Quality and Assurance and Verification Division, following an Inishowen patient's complaint to the Ombudsman about his “unprofessional” treatment in the hospital's emergency department.

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David Nutley, head of communications at the office of the ombudsman, confirmed the Ombudsman had received the report late last week.

He said: “The Ombudsman is currently examining the contents of the report. He will then respond to the HSE.

“No decision yet has been taken on whether the Ombudsman will comment publicly on this particular case.

“In general, the Ombudsman reports on issues and complaints his office receives through his annual report to the Oireachtas, and from time to time through his website and the media.”

In addition, the Inish Times understands it will not be possible to obtain a copy of the report on the review of Letterkenny University Hospital's complaint-handling process via a Freedom of Information request.

This is because these are records exchanged in the context of an Ombudsman investigation.

There is a section in the Freedom of Information Act, which excludes records relating to an investigation by the Ombudsman. The Freedom of Information Act does not apply to these records.

This also means that even the patient who made the original complaint to the Ombudsman, Enda Craig from Carnagarve in Moville, will not be able to access the report under a Freedom of Information request.

An incredulous Enda Craig said, if needs be, he would check with the European Commission to find out if the HSE could “hide” a report to do with the public.

Enda said: “This was such a serious situation, the Ombudsman had to instigate a national review into the complaint-handling process of Letterkenny University Hospital.

“It now appears that the public who depend on fair play and making sure they get fair treatment in the hospital, are left completely in the dark, not knowing was there anything found and whether anything has been put in place to ensure no other patient is ever treated in a similar unprofessional manner, into the further.

“It is just completely wrong the report will be out of the view of the people. We depend on the complaint system to make sure we get fair play and we can hold people to account. It is our only avenue of redress.

“How can we have any confidence in a system that reviews a situation because it was found to need a national review because of a complaint from a patient and now we are told, 'You are not going to know or find out anything about it'. It is quite unbelievable.

“I will be calling on all the senior politicians in Donegal to make sure this report sees the light of day, not just for me, but for every other patient who is ever likely to go into Letterkenny University Hospital.”

According to the Ombudsman, the report is the property of the HSE and it is up to the HSE whether or not it is made public.

However, this seems to be at odds with a previous statement to Inish Times, by the HSE, which said the report on the review would be issued to the Ombudsman, on April 1, 2022, and publication of the review would be at the discretion of the Office of the Ombudsman.

Enda's complaint to the Ombudsman against Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH) centred on the manner in which he was treated by a staff member in the early morning of May 11, 2019, while he was a patient in a cubicle in the emergency department.

Enda had told the Ombudsman the cubicle curtain had been pulled back by the clinical nurse manager, who, in his words, shouted aggressively at him from the entrance of the cubicle: “You have to get out of here. I need this bed to examine another patient”.

In his reply to Enda, the Ombudsman apologised for the delay in finalising the examination of his case, which he said was due to a number of factors, including “consistently high volumes of complaints about health matters – many of which are complex in nature”.

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At that time, the Ombudsman confirmed he had asked Sean Murphy, the general manager, of Letterkenny University Hospital, to write to him; apologise to him, acknowledge that his complaint had been poorly handled and retract the initial complaint examination report.

The Ombudsman concluded: “However, given our experience with this particular complaint, the Ombudsman has also asked the National Director of the HSE’s Quality Assurance and Verification Division to undertake a review of the hospital’s overall complaint handling processes, with a view to ensuring that the recommendations in the Ombudsman’s Learning to Get Better Report 1 – particularly Recommendations 13 to 26 – are being actively implemented at all levels in the hospital.”