The Western Health Board has still not interviewed any witnesses put forward by a woman who complained to it two years ago that she was being bullied by a specialist at Galway Hospice.
The revelation, made in health board correspondence seen by The Irish Times, will further embarrass the health board, which was severely criticised in a Labour Court ruling earlier this year over delays in investigating a different complaint of alleged bullying by the same specialist.
The court said the delay was "wholly unreasonable and inexcusable".
The specialist is Dr Dympna Waldron, who is the board's only palliative care consultant. She is understood to deny all allegations of bullying.
When the health board wrote on March 29th, 2004, to the legal team representing a woman who lodged a bullying complaint with it in April 2002 in relation to Dr Waldron, it confirmed it still had not interviewed any of her witnesses to the alleged incident.
Furthermore it blamed Dr Waldron for holding up its investigation.
In the letter the health board's regional manager, Dr Sean Conroy, wrote: "To date we have not yet interviewed any witnesses presented by [the complainant's name]. The current position is that we are awaiting a response from the consultant, Dr Dympna Waldron, to [the complainant's name] complaint. This has been a source of frustration for us and has delayed the investigation process to date".
Dr Conroy was appointed to investigate the woman's complaint in October 2002. He wrote to her in December 2002 to say it was being investigated alongside allegations made by two other parties. "The pace of the investigation is slow, and this is regretted," he admitted.
He interviewed the complainant in June 2003 and was supplied with a formal list of witnesses to her complaint the following month.
The complainant's legal team wrote to the board last month saying their client was "extremely anxious" to have the matter finalised and inquired when Dr Conroy would be in a position to issue his findings.
It was then they were informed that none of the complainant's witnesses had been interviewed and that a response was awaited from Dr Waldron to the complaint.
Asked by The Irish Times why Dr Waldron was allegedly delaying the investigation, her solicitor confirmed that she had replied to Dr Conroy's request for a submission.
It is understood Dr Waldron made an initial submission soon after Dr Conroy began his investigation but that her latest submission was not made until after Dr Conroy's letter of March 29th, 2004, criticising her had issued.
When asked why its investigation was taking so long, a spokeswoman for the health board said the inquiry was ongoing and the board was hopeful it would be completed by May.
Galway Hospice has been at the centre of controversy for well over a year now, since both the bullying allegations were made and since Dr Waldron stopped referring patients to it in May 2003 because she was concerned about a number of errors made in the administration of drugs to patients.
Those complaints were the subject of an independent investigation, which upheld many of Dr Waldron's concerns. In two cases, 10 times the prescribed dose of medication was given to patients.
Since then a team has been working on implementing the recommendations of the report of the independent investigation, and the hospice remains closed to new patients.
This week it became less clear when it will be able to start readmitting patients because Dr Waldron is on sick leave. The Irish Hospital Consultants' Association said she would not be returning to work at the hospice "for the time being" for health reasons.
She will continue to work in the health board's hospitals, however.
The chairman of the Galway Hospice Foundation, Dr Robert Joyce, called on the health board to intervene so that patients could again be admitted to the unit.
A spokeswoman for the health board said it was working closely with the hospice and was examining "all options available".
