News

'The systems did fail' says bereaved daughter

A woman, whose mother was one of five patients at the Royal Victoria Hospital's a&E who may have died partly because they were not treated quickly enough, said she feels let down by the health service.

Collette macruagian's 80-year-old mother died last november.

She had suffered several bleeds to the brain.

Her daughter said the family were concerned by the level of care she had received in the a&E department.

"Mum had waited on a chair for about five hours," she said.

"She had been triaged incorrectly. What I mean by that is that no one took account that she was on (blood thinning drug) warfarin.

"She was seen by a junior doctor who had asked for a CAT scan to be done. There was a further delay of an hour-and-a-half. There seemed to be some delay then in getting whatever she needed for the warfarin reversal and what transpired now was that there was no porter available." At the family's request, the 80-year-old's death was investigated. Ms Macruagian told BBC Newsline the hospital later apologised.

"I feel that systems did fail and I feel there was not appropriate resources," she said.

"Unfortunately the a&E, on that night, and probably on numerous other occasions wasn't the safe place that it should be."