THE BEREAVED family of Aoife Johnston have today (Thursday, September 19) written to HSE boss Bernard Gloster to waive their right to anonymity in a challenge to him to name names in former Chief Justice Frank Clarke’s report into her death.
The Shannon family have thrown down the gauntlet after learning that the report, to be published next week, will name no names and have no teeth, the Limerick Post can reveal.
16-year-old Aoife, from Shannon, County Clare, died of meningitis on December 19, 2022, after she was referred to the overcrowded emergency department at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) with suspected sepsis that went untreated for more than 12 hours.
An investigation into her death, conducted by former Chief Justice Frank Clarke, was completed two months ago and has still to be published.
The report has already been made available to the Johnston family’s solicitor, Damien Tansey, and to the family, who are “profoundly disappointed”, the solicitor told the Limerick Post.
Speaking to this newspaper on Wednesday, Mr Tansey revealed that the Johnston family are writing to HSE CEO Bernard Gloster and “waiving their right to anonymity” in the Clarke report, setting out a challenge to him to name others.
He said the family have been totally let down after receiving assurances at a meeting with Mr Gloster that Chief Justice Frank Clarke would be given free reign in his work and that the report would be “painstaking and unfettered”.
“In the next breath, Mr Clarke was told by legal representative for Mr Gloster what he could not do … and Mr Gloster did not even have the courtesy to tell the family that,” Mr Tansey told the Limerick Post.
Mr Tansey, the senior partner in Damien Tansey Solicitors, based in Sligo and Dublin, said the report had “failed monumentally” in what is was intended to do.
He described the finished report as “benign, fluffy, and woolly”, and said it “fails to even resolves issues that are in conflict” and does not include any adverse findings in relation to individuals.
Mr Tansey said that the report as it stands is “pointless”.
“What was the purpose of this report? Why engage in an exercise that at the very outset is incapable of doing anything?”
He added that the family had never been consulted on the terms of reference for the report, despite being the ones who had to watch their daughter die.
“The State owes it to Aoife Johnston and her family to set up a statutory inquiry into her death. That is what they will be calling for.”
Such an inquiry would allow the author to make findings and name people involved.
Mr Gloster has now said that the Clarke report will be published no later than Monday (September 23).
He told the Oireachtas Health Committee yesterday (Wednesday) that the report is “very comprehensive” and is being acted on.
He said the report had “fulfilled all of its terms of reference “.
An inquest into the 16-year-old schoolgirl’s death returned a verdict of medical misadventure.
The UL Hospitals Group and the HSE had previously apologised publicly to the Johnston family.
