A PRESSURE group made up of families whose relatives were allegedly assaulted at Muckamore Abbey Hospital is to meet health minister Robin Swann today to press for a public inquiry.
Action For Muckamore was formed following concerns that a high-level health service investigation failed to hold to account organisations charged with managing and regulating the Co Antrim facility, which is now at the centre of the biggest police probe of its kind into patient abuse.
Sources say that while some type of inquiry is likely to be sanctioned - similar to that ordered into the Dr Watt neurology recall scandal - a public inquiry has been ruled out.
Solicitor Claire McKeegan of Phoenix Law, who represents Action For Muckamore and will attend today's meeting, insists an inquiry can run in tandem with the PSNI probe by examining the "systemic" failings, saying that any decision to block it "flies in the face of public interest".
"As each day passes, the quality of evidence is likely to fade and the ability of any inquiry to get to the truth is likely to diminish," she said.
Last month Mr Swann cited the PSNI investigation as something he would have to take "cognisance of" in any "process" set up to deal with Muckamore.
However the UUP minister accepted families have a "right to answers on what went so appallingly wrong, how the abuse happened and what is being done to prevent anything like this happening again".
Glynn Brown, who heads up the pressure group and was the parent who first raised the alarm after his vulnerable non-verbal son, Aaron, was allegedly assaulted by a staff member in August 2017, said public confidence has been lost in the health service.
Police have told the Brown family they have discovered on CCTV more than 130 alleged incidents of ill-treatment of Aaron - almost triple the number found by the Belfast trust in its investigation.
Mr Brown said Mr Swann's decision will be a "test of his integrity" after the former UUP leader - along with other party heads - wrote a letter last summer endorsing a public inquiry.
First minister Arlene Foster went further in her correspondence, saying it was "in the public interest" to "prioritise" an inquiry.
Speaking to The Irish News, the Dundonald father said: “When Mr Swann and the other parties backed our campaign, he got our expectations up. We're now keen to see if he lives up to his word.
"Some relatives met him in January and he said he had to be briefed on the matter by police. But now he has been in post over a month he must be now aware of the magnitude of this scandal.
"We also know through our solicitor that a public inquiry can go ahead without prejudicing the police investigation. We're keen to know how such catastrophic failings across the system could have been carried out under the watch of the Belfast trust, the Department of Health and the RQIA."
A total of 40 staff have been suspended from Muckamore while police say 1,500 suspected crimes were discovered on just one ward in a six-month period.
