Some patients under the care of a consultant urologist in the Southern Health Trust died as a result of failures in patient care, the Urology Services Inquiry has found.
Christine Smith KC said systemic failures, weak governance, poor oversight and underdeveloped leadership created “conditions in which patients were seriously harmed”.
She said patients of the consultant, Aidan O’Brien, were badly let down, facing delays in diagnosis and treatment, including cancer care.
The chief executive of the Southern Health Trust, Steve Spoerry, has apologised adding he “completely accepts that patients came to harm”.
“The treatment of patients was in some cases delayed, diagnosis was delayed and that would have lead to worse outcomes – worse outcomes in terms of symptoms and potentially premature death,” he said.
The inquiry was set up in 2020 following a series of Serious Adverse Incidents (SAIs) involving O’Brien.
Urology is a part of health care that deals with diseases of the male and female urinary tract including kidneys, bladder and urethra.
The problem first came to light in October 2020 when the records of more than 1,000 patients who were in the care of O’Brien were recalled at the Southern Trust.
The inquiry looked at O’Brien’s work at the trust between January 2019 and June 2020 and also focused on the Southern Trust’s handling of urology services before May 2020.
O’Brien is now retired.
The report sets out clear recommendations to strengthen leadership, governance and culture, and to ensure failures are not repeated.
The Urology Services Inquiry found that there was both a failure of individual responsibility as well as systemic failures.
While the report reviews O’Brien’s practice, it is scathing in how systems were managed, led and the lack of accountability from the health trust board.