The chief executive of the North Eastern Health Board has hit back at negative reporting by the media about its hospitals, including Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda and Cavan General Hospital.
In a statement, Mr Paul Robinson said that after the full details surrounding disgraced obstetrician Dr Michael Neary became known, the board had taken decisive action to prevent such incidents recurring.
He said in 2000 the full extent of the issues surrounding Dr Neary were known to the board but were not in the public domain.
The board could have "regarded what happened as a once-off occurrence and hope that nothing further happened", but instead decided to appoint independent risk assessors to look at its five major hospitals, he said.
It was the first health board in the State to do this and the examination was completed by Healthcare Risk Resources International (HRRI) which drew up a list of recommendations on foot of detailed inspections at the five hospital sites, which were the Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, the Louth County in Dundalk, Our Lady's in Navan, Monaghan General and Cavan General.
Mr Robinson said the findings of the HRRI reports on the sites "were detailed and comprehensive and the findings represented a major challenge for all hospital staff and also for corporate management of the board".
He said that risk management "requires a change in culture" in hospitals and "is extremely difficult and time consuming. It requires wholehearted co-operation from staff. This has not been forthcoming in some cases and where such was the case, it has impeded progress and has ultimately been a factor in well-publicised difficulties at the Cavan Hospital site".
In a reference to the case of nine-year-old Frances Sheridan, who was sent home from Cavan General Hospital and later died, he said the report completed by an independent review group after her death had further demonstrated the need for constant review and improvement of processes and systems for all involved.