Health honesty laws ‘essential’ to stop other families going through what we did, says father of nine-year-old girl who died in Belfast hospital

Alan Roberts’ daughter Claire died from a condition known as hyponatraemia in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in 1996, and her death was one of several examined by a public inquiry over the course of 14 years.

In 2018, the inquiry made a total of 96 recommendations and first amongst them was a “statutory duty of candour” requiring every healthcare organisation and everyone working for them to be “open and honest in all their dealngs with patients and the public”.

In the report, the inquiry chairman Mr Justice O’Hara said he was “persuaded” there had been an attempt to “cover up” the events surrounding the death of Claire Roberts.

Claire’s father told the News Letter that a new law is “vital” to prevent other families going through the same difficulties they faced.

On Thursday, Health Minister Robin Swann announced that a public consultation on policy proposals to create a legal requirement for a “duty of candour” would open on April 12 and last 16 weeks.

In a written statement to the Northern Ireland Assembly, Mr Swann said: “A Statutory Duty of Candour would create a legal responsibility for all healthcare organisations and individual staff to be honest when things go wrong.

“This duty would not just apply to being open and honest with patients, but also include the need to be open and honest within organisations when reporting adverse incidents or near misses that may have led to harm.”

Mr Roberts said: “It’s absolutely shocking, unsatisfactory and very frustrating for us as afamily that we’re now in a position where there’s going to be a further delay.

“We’re going to enter into a situation where there’s going to be a further 16-week consultation period that will protract things. The Assembly mandate expires next year, in 2022, so it’s not going to happen within that timeframe and that means it’s going to be protracted out further.”

He added: “A duty of candour is vital to us as a family after what we have experienced, after what we have been through.

“What we have experienced throughout the years has been a lack of honesty, and a lack of openness.

“It’s essential for the public to have confidence in our health service. I don’t want to see other families going through what we’ve gone through.”