Briege Donaghy from the RQIA said it was only through the involvement of the families “that we got the full extent of the picture”.
“It is beyond sobering. It is a devastating picture of the human impact that comes from poor practice by a clinician and poor oversight of those charged with the governance and assurance of the delivery of health and social care,” she said.
“The impact for individuals would be best described by the families themselves, but I can tell you that we know that in this case there were multiple and ongoing evidence of poor diagnostic practice, lack of involvement of multi-disciplinary teams and impossible information for patients.”
She said suspicions from family members about the care of their loved one were not listened to.
“It has taken for some, several decades, to get to the truth.”
Donaghy said there was “a culture of dismissing and setting aside patients and families who raise concerns as being difficult, abrasive and denying people access to be heard”.
The RQIA’s first phase report was published in November 2022 and examined the records of 44 deceased patients, while in a second phase a further 25 families came forward and those records were subsequently reviewed.
The Belfast Health Trust said on Thursday that it was wholly and unreservedly sorry to everyone who had been affected by the neurology recalls since May 2018.
It said its thoughts were with the families of those patients who had sadly passed away.