Harris wants greater powers to set up patient safety inquiries

The Minister for Health Simon Harris has said he wants to change legislation to provide greater powers to establish inquiries aimed at improving patient safety.

Speaking on Thursday after the High Court upheld the National Maternity Hospital's challenge to his order directing an inquiry into the death of Malak Thawley (34), Mr Harris said he remains concerned about the circumstances surrounding Ms Thawley's death, following surgery for an ectopic pregnancy at the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin in May 2016.

The High Court’s Mr Justice Charles Meenan had ruled earlier on Thursday that the Minister had no reasonable basis for directing an inquiry into Ms Malak’s death under Section 9 of the Health Act.

Mr Harris said he was committed to conducting an external and independent patient safety investigation, so that he could “be assured that any patient safety risks at the hospital are identified and addressed, and that any learnings are disseminated across all our hospitals”.

He said he had asked the Department of Health to progress this and he looks forward to the hospital’s full co-operation in this regard.

The Minister said he had asked his department to examine the judgement in the High Court action taken by the National Maternity Hospital which quashed his decision to set up an inquiry by the Health Information and Quality Authority on foot of the death of Ms Thawley.

He said he wanted the Department of Health to bring forward proposals to amend the Patient Safety Bill recently approved by Government “to ensure that sufficient powers are available to any future Minister for Health to ensure investigations can be expeditiously conducted where there is the potential to improve patient safety”.

Alan Thawley

Also on Thursday, Alan Thawley, widower of Malak Thawley, called for mandatory inquests in cases of maternal deaths.

In a statement issued on his behalf, Mr Thawley said he now awaits further communication from the Minister concerning a promised external review “and expects the NMH will fully co-operate in that regard”.

“At the end of the day, from Mr Thawley’s perspective, there still has been no independent external investigation of this maternal death tragedy,” the statement said. “This underscores the need for mandatory inquests in cases of maternal deaths.”

Mr Thawley welcomed the end of the NMH’s judicial review proceedings. The four day hearing revisiting the “very tragic and distressing facts of his late wife’s needless and negligent death” was very painful for him, it said.

“He hopes that the Minister will not been deterred by the hospital’s efforts through the courts to deter him.”