North East HSE Manager Must Go

Meath East Sinn Féin representative, Sinéad Burke, has called for the immediate sacking or resignation of a HSE manager following revelations surrounding the death of a young woman and her baby son at Our Lady of Lourde’s Hospital, Drogheda.
It has been revealed that Hospital Network Manager for the area, Mr Stephen Mulvany, sought to influence the report in order to place blame on staff members at the Maternity Unit of the hospital.

Sinéad Burke said “It is clear from documents obtained by LM/FM’s Michael Reade that the Hospital Network Manager, successfully sought to influence the report of inquiry to blame staff members for aspects of care management which led to the death of mother and son in March 2007, rather than institutional and resource failures.

“The Network Manager also admits that he did change the report and that he sought to reduce the legal and financial impact of the incident on the HSE, rather than seek a full, open and honest report into the tragedy. The independence as well as the integrity of the report are now seriously challenged. The actions of the Network Manager also displays a wholly-blinkered view in favour of the HSE, rather than the proper care of patients in the North East

“In light of these revelations, I believe that the Network Manager’s position is untenable. Staff in the health service in the North East have can have no confidence that, if another incident were to occur in the near future, he would not seek to scapegoat them. He should immediately apologise to staff at the Lourdes Maternity Unit for his efforts to wrongly blame them for the McCabe tragedy. If he doesn’t resign in light of the shocking revelations of this document he should be sacked.”