Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 16 July 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions

Report on “A Good Death”: Office of the Ombudsman

4:45 pm

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Ombudsman on this report. I hope it will have the intended effect of bringing about a guaranteed minimum service or standard.

Ms McNally raised the point of why there are not many complaints. Some of this relates to the Irish approach to death, as has been noted, and if somebody dies, people may not want to resurrect issues surrounding the death or dwell on the matter so they move on. I have found that people often do not want to make a complaint because they do not want an incident to reflect badly on other staff. A person may wish to complain about nurses on a night shift or a doctor but could feel the complaint would reflect on the entire team helping a loved one. There may be a case for family meetings to be held within a very short timeframe. I have experienced every part of the hospital service in the past year so I could tell the committee much more than some of the doctors in hospitals near me.

I have been made aware that sometimes there is a failure by the hospital - although it may not be the hospital's fault - to share information with a family because the person being treated wants to put on a brave face and will not allow medical staff to share the issues with the family. They may say they are not doing badly or they are not in pain. They may not want help. That can lead to conflict as an adult is entitled to privacy and information. If somebody is to care for a person at home and take on that responsibility, I do not know how we can get to grips with conflicts that can arise, as the carers should be entitled to information as well. If a patient, whether it is a mother or brother, is going home, a carer must be informed as to whether he or she could be violent, for example, or wake in the night screaming. One would not be aware of such behaviour if one is just visiting a patient in hospital for an hour or 30 minutes. A person making arrangements for home care may not know the consequences of particular medication or bouts of lucidity mixed with anger. We must consider how physicians and nursing staff can share information in such scenarios so a family taking on care in the last weeks or months of a person's life can understand the full consequences of what is being taken on.

It is good that we are talking about this issue and moving in a specific direction. It may make it easier for patients in future to avoid just putting on a brave face and asking to be brought home.

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