The Ulster Unionist Party has said that in the ongoing absence of a local Health Minister to order a public inquiry, that an independent inquiry panel must be launched immediately by the Department of Health into allegations of abuse against patients at Muckamore Abbey Hospital.
Ulster Unionist Health Spokesperson, Roy Beggs MLA, said:
“In any ordinary circumstances my Party would now be supportive of a public inquiry into the deeply disturbing allegations surrounding Muckamore Abbey. Of course these are not ordinary times and without a Minister or Executive in place to take such a decision, once again patients and their families are being badly let down in Northern Ireland.
“Whilst I would like to see the Secretary of State for once stepping up to the mark and making such a ruling, everything we have seen to date shows that the she is wholly unwilling and unprepared to take these difficult decisions.
“If she continues to ignore the deepening scandal surrounding Muckamore Abbey then I believe the Department of Health locally has no choice but to announce the establishment of an independent inquiry panel into the matter. Such a precedent was already set when, in May 2018, one was established to review the major recall of neurology patients by the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust.
“That panel comprises of Brett Lockhart QC and Dr Hugo Mascie-Taylor, an internationally recognised expert, and it is generally considered to be conducting a thorough and independent inquiry into the matter.”
South Antrim Ulster Unionist MLA, Dr Steve Aiken, added:
“If we had a functioning Government and a local Executive in all likelihood we would have already had a public inquiry announced and underway into the serious failings in care at Muckamore. Yet because we don’t have a Minister, and all we do have is a Secretary of State incapable of taking even the most basic of decisions, I firmly believe the next best thing is a DoH ordered independent inquiry panel.
“The public and families would have concerns at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust defining the terms and appointing those to carry out any inquiry into itself. There is also concern at the role of RQIA in monitoring activity at Muckamore - that is why we believe that a wider inquiry appointed the Department of Health is necessary.
“The Belfast Trust has displayed what I believe to be major failures in governance and accountability in regards to this entire issue. Only with a truly independent inquiry will the families and the wider public ever discover what exactly happened at Muckamore Abbey, and how it was ever even allowed to happen.”