THE HEAD OF the HSE has said he is committed to ensuring “appropriate justice” is achieved over failures that led to the death of teenager Aoife Johnston at University Hospital Limerick.

But Bernard Gloster said he was not prepared to allow healthcare staff to be tried by social media prior to the conclusion of an independent probe into the case.

The 16-year-old died on 19 December, 2022 after waiting 12 hours in the hospital’s emergency department for treatment for sepsis.

Her family has said her condition deteriorated so much that other patients began advocating for her to be seen.

An independent investigation led by retired chief justice Frank Clarke is to examine the circumstances surrounding Aoife’s death, as well as the clinical and corporate governance of the hospital.

An initial report found that overcrowding in UHL’s emergency department is “endemic”, and doctor and nurse staffing levels are “insufficient”.

HSE chief executive Gloster said he hoped to meet Aoife’s family to discuss the case.

“I do want to express my profound regret and sincere apology to them for what has happened to them,” he told RTE Radio One.

“There is nothing I can say that can take away the pain and the grief they must be experiencing. And it is just so dreadfully tragic. And I do sincerely want to apologise for that. That is the first thing.

“The second thing I want to say is that in healthcare, mistakes and errors happen and very often we have to learn from those and we have to create an environment that we would call a just culture, that allows us to learn because otherwise people would never practice medicine or clinical care.

“However, there certainly in this case are significant factors of a serious failing that had the most catastrophic outcome and consequences.

“I have said very clearly the question of accountability has to be a question that I, as the CEO of the organisation, have to answer.”

Asked if people will lose their jobs if adverse findings are made against them in the independent investigation, Gloster said: “I have raised the question of accountability. This is not only a tragic, but very complex matter.

“That’s why I have asked for and he has agreed for Justice Frank Clarke to assist me.

“He’s going to do that over a very short period of time, this is not a two or three year prolonged inquiry. Based on what he tells me and everything else, I have to then determine whether or not other processes follow from that.

“I can’t engage in speculation or presumption around that, but I do want to say, and it’s important, there has been no finding against any individual at the moment, and I think it’s very important that where there is accountability people can be absolutely assured I will discharge that.

“But I equally will not commit my staff to trial by social media or the summary justice of populism.”

Gloster was asked to respond to reports that criticism of hospital management in an early draft of an internal report had been removed before being passed to the Johnston family.

“I don’t know quite frankly, I wasn’t here at the time of the draft report,” he said.

“But if I can just explain, away from this specific case, what normally happens with a systems analysis (report) is if you’re a staff member who contributes to it, you get back a factual accuracy check of what you said to ensure the investigator has what you said.

“And if the investigator is drafting a report that in any way might appear to be, or have the consequence of being an adverse finding, which is not the purpose of systems analysis, you do have the right respond to that beforehand. And that does lead to changes in draft reports.

“What I am saying though, equally, is that any concern that anybody has about the systems analysis report, including the family, I will be very glad to hear that from them.

“And I’d be very glad indeed for them to be able to raise that directly with Justice Clarke.

“So everything is on the table.

“But I do want to be clear – first and foremost in my thoughts here has to be Aoife and her family and doing appropriate justice to the failure that led to her death.”