A HEALTH trust has been strongly criticised for its investigation into how an elderly woman’s body sustained multiple fractures after her death in hospital, according to a report on the controversy presented to the bereaved family.
Relatives of 78-year-old Maureen McGinley from Strabane in Co Tyrone took their complaint to a public services watchdog to discover how their mother’s body sustained 34 fractures after her death in Altnagelvin hospital in Derry in January 2007.
Investigative news website The Detail obtained the report carried out by the Northern Ireland Public Service Ombudsman that described the Western Health and Social Care Trust’s investigation as “wholly inadequate”.
Commenting on how the trust handled Mrs McGinley’s case, the report said: “It is impossible to understand why the trust, one of whom’s stated aims is to learn lessons from complaints, did not adequately investigate this serious adverse incident which was also attracting significant public attention and indeed serious adverse comment that was having serious implications for the public standing of the trust.”
The ombudsman upheld the McGinley family’s complaint in full and found “maladministration” on the part of the trust in relation to how it carried out investigations into the incident.
The report concluded the fractures were most likely to have been caused accidently and ruled out any deliberate actions by staff.
However, it was critical of how the trust’s investigation was carried out and recommended an apology be made to the McGinley family.
The ombudsman also stated that the trust should pay £2,500 to each of Mrs McGinley’s eight children for “the injustice of upset, distress and uncertainty caused by the failure to conduct an adequate investigation as to the possible causes of the post mortem fractures”.
Speaking about his mother’s case Martin McGinley said: “Ten years is a very long time to wait and it has taken its toll on our family. We haven’t been able to grieve properly, there’s barely a day that has gone by that it hasn’t been on my mind.
“We welcome the report as we’ve found out more from it than we have known over the last decade. At the end of the day our mother is greatly missed and it’s important to us that this issue is raised in public as we hope no other family has to go through what we have.”
The report stated that the fractures were most likely to have occurred at some point during the ‘Last Offices’ performed on Mrs McGinley’s body.
This is a procedure carried out soon after the death of a patient and includes preparing the body for viewing by relatives such as changing their clothes if necessary.
However as Mrs McGinley had osteoporosis, a condition which caused her to have weak bones, the ombudsman ruled out the possibility of any deliberate actions by staff.
The Western Health and Social Care Trust - which is responsible for Altnagelvin hospital - declined to comment on the content of the report saying that it was confidential.
The document does, however, state that the trust has accepted the main findings of the report and extended its condolences to the McGinley family.
