A brother who claims his late sister was “let down by the State” is angry there’ll be no further review of the end-of-life care she received.
Dublin woman Elizabeth Canning was 59 when she died last May, following a long series of illnesses. She had curvature of the spine, spina bifida, epilepsy, and suffered a brain injury in 2013.
Her broken-hearted brother Con, 56, believes the health system could have done more for her and complained to the Taoiseach and Ireland East Hospital Group. But he has been told that the family cannot meet Liz’s consultant to discuss her treatment and there will be no further review of her care.
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Con has now told Dublin Live he is “frustrated and angered” at the decision from the Ireland East Hospital Group, which was delivered days before Christmas. It stated: “On further review of the complaint file, we note the ombudsman has upheld the decision made by the consultant in relation to your sister’s care.”
Ireland East added the “request for you to meet the relevant staff to discuss the issues raised in your complaint has been declined”. It said: “[After] consideration of your request, the opinion [is that there is] no further information to offer you.”
Con revealed his “disabled, wheelchair-bound sister” needed constant “hospital care for her pain management”. But he claimed she had been “living in chronic, horrendous pain for nearly five years”. He wrote to the Taoiseach’s office to highlight his concerns and was assured that his concerns would be passed to the Department of Health.
Con said: “Liz’s stress level was through the roof. We contacted the HSE, doctors, and politicians for help. But, unfortunately, my lovely sister passed without enough being done to help her to get her pain under control.
“Her day-to-day pain got worse. Her GP wrote a letter on her behalf for palliative care. An advocate from the disability sector wrote a letter of complaint.
“I sent emails to the Department of Health and Liz finally got a referral to a private care clinic in Dublin. The appointment was May 17, but unfortunately Liz passed away on May 6. To us, it feels like Liz had years of horrendous pain.”
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In his response to the Ireland East Hospital Group, he wrote: “We, as a family, are very frustrated and angered by your findings and feel we have been let down again by the HSE. All my sister wanted was for someone to help her get this horrendous chronic pain under control.”
The Economic and Social Research Institute earlier this month published new research to state that people like Liz are confined to their homes because of a personal assistance shortage. Con said: “The ESRI report has said people become isolated without trained personal assistants and that was definitely the case with Liz.”
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