Enda Craig recounts his experience at the hands of HSE bureaucracy after he made a complaint about the manner in which he had been treated. 

This issue concerns a one-page complaint by me against a staff member in the Emergency Department of Letterkenny University Hospital for alleged abusive behaviour.

LUH responded with 25 pages which contained several descriptions of CCTV images. None of them were found to exist on the footage which attempted to portray my behaviour as that of a thug.

This 25-page response also contained a misleading Clinical Incident Report (a legal document), as well as numerous uncorroborated statements and unfounded allegations all of which were intended to paint my behaviour as that of a thug who engaged in 'staff abuse and threatening behaviour'.

In fact, these were untrue accusations that, in my view, sought to protect the reputation of the hospital and its staff so that my written complaint would be dismissed out of hand.

Vilification Of An Innocent Patient By A Consultant In Letterkenny University Hospital
 

This video clip of an interaction between myself and a Clinical Nurse Manager was interpreted by a Senior Consultant at Letterkenny Hospital, who stated:

At 01.58 hours, you approached the CNM from the side and leaned over her desk where she was sitting at work from your elevated standing position. You pointed your finger at the CNM and into her face for a protracted period from 01.58, lasting 34 seconds. The CNM is seen to recoil backwards and lift her hands in a defensive manner.

On appeal LUH admitted that the statement "The CNM is seen to recoil backwards and lift her hands in a defensive manner" was wholly inaccurate and never took place in the first instance. This was simply used by the Senior Consultant in an attempt to vilify an innocent patient who stood up for his rights and made a genuine complaint against a member of staff in the ED department. Senior management backed the Consultant to the hilt and refused to discuss it.  

A piece in Donegal Live by Catherine McGinty from the Inish Times headed, 'Complain against Letterkenny University Hospital at your peril' - reported that:

A Donegal man has called for for an urgent public enquiry into the patient complaints procedure of Saolta University Health Care Group, which comprises seven hospitals including Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH).
Enda Craig, from Carnagarve in Moville in Inishowen made the call following what he claimed were attempts to “vilify and discredit” him when he made an official complaint regarding LUH's Emergency Department. It centres on CCTV footage which Mr Craig obtained following a Freedom of Information request to LUH.
Having viewed the CCTV footage, Donegal TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn told Inish Times: “I have looked at the CCTV footage of the incident and it does appear to me that there are questions to answer.”
 
Senior management in the hospital stated that I should never have been given a copy of the CCTV footage.

Lucky me.

⏩ Enda Craig is Donegal resident. 

Hospital Complaint And A Shameful Vilifying Response

Enda Craig recounts his experience at the hands of HSE bureaucracy after he made a complaint about the manner in which he had been treated. 

This issue concerns a one-page complaint by me against a staff member in the Emergency Department of Letterkenny University Hospital for alleged abusive behaviour.

LUH responded with 25 pages which contained several descriptions of CCTV images. None of them were found to exist on the footage which attempted to portray my behaviour as that of a thug.

This 25-page response also contained a misleading Clinical Incident Report (a legal document), as well as numerous uncorroborated statements and unfounded allegations all of which were intended to paint my behaviour as that of a thug who engaged in 'staff abuse and threatening behaviour'.

In fact, these were untrue accusations that, in my view, sought to protect the reputation of the hospital and its staff so that my written complaint would be dismissed out of hand.

Vilification Of An Innocent Patient By A Consultant In Letterkenny University Hospital
 

This video clip of an interaction between myself and a Clinical Nurse Manager was interpreted by a Senior Consultant at Letterkenny Hospital, who stated:

At 01.58 hours, you approached the CNM from the side and leaned over her desk where she was sitting at work from your elevated standing position. You pointed your finger at the CNM and into her face for a protracted period from 01.58, lasting 34 seconds. The CNM is seen to recoil backwards and lift her hands in a defensive manner.

On appeal LUH admitted that the statement "The CNM is seen to recoil backwards and lift her hands in a defensive manner" was wholly inaccurate and never took place in the first instance. This was simply used by the Senior Consultant in an attempt to vilify an innocent patient who stood up for his rights and made a genuine complaint against a member of staff in the ED department. Senior management backed the Consultant to the hilt and refused to discuss it.  

A piece in Donegal Live by Catherine McGinty from the Inish Times headed, 'Complain against Letterkenny University Hospital at your peril' - reported that:

A Donegal man has called for for an urgent public enquiry into the patient complaints procedure of Saolta University Health Care Group, which comprises seven hospitals including Letterkenny University Hospital (LUH).
Enda Craig, from Carnagarve in Moville in Inishowen made the call following what he claimed were attempts to “vilify and discredit” him when he made an official complaint regarding LUH's Emergency Department. It centres on CCTV footage which Mr Craig obtained following a Freedom of Information request to LUH.
Having viewed the CCTV footage, Donegal TD Pádraig Mac Lochlainn told Inish Times: “I have looked at the CCTV footage of the incident and it does appear to me that there are questions to answer.”
 
Senior management in the hospital stated that I should never have been given a copy of the CCTV footage.

Lucky me.

⏩ Enda Craig is Donegal resident. 

13 comments:

  1. Enda it's not the best footage but it looks like you wanted to talk to the Nurse and when she raised her hand with a loaded colt 45 and told you to fuck off -you quietly walked away? What you highlight sounds like standard response from the hospital; it's a cultural flaw that is neither getting worse nor better, the public are just expected to just put up with it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Christy - exactly as I saw it. I felt the aggressor in this case was the person on the desk. What I saw was a guy at a counter trying to make a point and being gestured to fuck off.
      The old witticism about doctors and hospital consultants is that they get to bury their mistakes.

      Delete
    2. I quietly tried to tell her that i was disgusted with the way i had been treated in the examination cubicle a short time earlier. The CCTV shows well the response i got ..... For questioning this abuse i was to be taught a lesson and hunted to the far end of the corridor to a metal chair for six hours out of sight, unattended and still waiting to be examined by the med. team.. On that basis plus some other stuff i made a short complaint. ... It is the response from the hospital that is the eyeopener. It contains the interpretation of the CCTV from a senior consultant who decides to imagine a scenario in three separate clips that do not appear on the official footage. But then again the world was his oyster as he thought i would never see the CCTV thus giving him carte blanche to see it as he wanted................ to save the hosp. reputation and cover the abuse he thought it acceptable to destroy my good name and bring shame on the basis that he painted a picture of the nurse having to recoil backwards and put her hands up in a defensive manner thus giving the reader the full on impression she felt i was about to hit her .........

      Delete
  2. Unknown - sign off on your comment and it will be published

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those who work in the health service are not as " angelic " as we are bullied into believing. Bad eggs in every walk of life # 😇 😈

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think we are bullied into believing anything. We are encouraged to appreciate the effort of those in the Health Service which have been sterling from the cleaner to the clinician. But you are right: there are bad eggs everywhere. And the institutional self image in any institution does not like to see what it has projected called into question. Institutions everywhere have a culture, a universal feature of which is self preservation and perpetuation.

      Delete
  4. It's called 'Common purpose' and it manifests itself in many ways....

    ReplyDelete
  5. This complaint and all its details are currently with the Ombudsman's office for final adjudication. On its journey to the Ombudsman the following organisation's and individuals have come together and sided completely with the hospital's response ( which includes, among other damning evidence, three instances where CCTV footage has been used to describe situations that do not appear on the official CCTV ). ...the Consumer's Affairs Section, Hospital General Manager, Hospital Director of Nursing, Senior Consultant, Saolta Independant Appeals Officer, NMNI, OIC, and relevant information refused under FOI. Needless to say these CCTV descriptions paint my alleged behaviour as those of an absolute thug...... i am a small lone voice standing my ground in the face of an assembled weight of senior HSE personnel .... in a conversation with the ' independent ' appeals officer he remarked .. " Mr Craig, for me to believe you i would have to accept that all these people are telling lies " ... a terrible vista!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Unknown - sign off on your comment and it will be published

    ReplyDelete
  7. Prosecute him Enda for 'false utterance' etc.. defamation? And then tell the world about it - again!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Legal advice at a high level advised staying out of the courts ... Ireland is the toughest country in the known world to prosecute defamation and tougher still when there is a govt institution involved .... but hope springs eternal -- the Ombudsman still has the opportunity to step up to the plate and expose the willful blindness that has so far enveloped the multiple agencies and individuals who so far can see nothing wrong from the hospitals escription of what happened ....

      Delete
  8. We are often reminded that the Catholic Church's main players so often covered up individual members' crimes in order to 'protect the integrity of the institution'. SF are accused if it too. But when it comes to the health industry? Well that really is a protected species! Duty of candour anyone?

    ReplyDelete
  9. I actually believe this is a proper test of the integrity of the Ombudsman's office ... the hospital and especially the consultant who interpreted the CCTV have been caught red handed with no if's, and's or but's about it. I have been advised he will squeeze the proverbial Camel through the eye of the needle in his haste to protect the 'special' one's ... we will see. The Catholic Church never fail to impress .. cannot forget the Dublin Cardinal who, when asked to explain a lie that was told by his priest stated .." he was simply expressing mental reservation " .. now that's a handy one the next time you find yourself in front of the bench ...

    ReplyDelete