A CORONER is to write to the National Treatment Purchase Fund and the Mater Private Hospital with regard to “communication issues” after a 58-year-old woman died two weeks after a procedure to repair a hernia.
Eileen Roche (58), of Whitestown Green, Blakestown, Dublin 15, suffered a cardiac arrest less than 48 hours after the procedure at the Mater Private Hospital under the NTPF on January 28th, 2009.
Coroner Dr Brian Farrell told an inquest that there were a number of “failures” or “communication issues” between the patient and doctors she attended and between the NTPF and the surgeon and consultants involved in the procedure.
Dublin City Coroner’s Court heard that Ms Roche’s GP, Dr Edel McGinnity, rang a co-ordinator with the NTPF to explain that Ms Roche, who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and mental health issues, would not be coming in on December 21st, the date originally scheduled for the procedure, and that she did not think she was fit for it.
The doctor then faxed a letter to the NTPF co-ordinator in the Mater Private Hospital on December 22th, 2008. The consultant surgeon who carried out the procedure in January 2009, Emmanuel Eguare, never saw the letter, the inquest heard.
Simon Mills, barrister for Mr Eguare, said he had not seen the letter and asked for it to be faxed.
Clinical co-ordinator with the NTPF Nollaig Crowley told the inquest that it would be the normal procedure for a copy of the letter to be faxed to the consultant’s room. There is no record of the fax, the inquest heard.
“It would have been desirable Dr McGinnity’s information about the patient and suitability should have been available to the consultant and the anaesthetist involved. It’s clear the surgeon and anaesthetist did not see the letter,” the coroner said.
Dr McGinnity told the inquest in April it was her hope the operation would be cancelled on foot of her letter. “I felt if an anaesthetist read the letter they would be loath to carry out the operation,” she said. The GP was not aware Ms Roche, who had been admitted to another hospital in November for almost three weeks with type two respiratory failure and for 10 days in December, was rescheduled to have the operation in January.
The coroner said he was recording a narrative verdict.