‘Vile’ abuse for hospital staff over Savita

A number of staff at University Hospital Galway (UHG) went out on stress leave due to the abuse meted out to them in the wake of Savita Halapanavar’s death, which prompted 61 emails or letters from the public and seven phone calls, most of them complaints about her treatment.

A week after a review into the tragedy by the HSE was published, the chairman of the board of the Galway and Roscommon University Hospital Group, Noel Daly, revealed that some staff were due to return this week after being absent for stress-related reasons.

Last April, Tony Canavan, chief operating officer for the hospital group, released a statement before the inquest began, saying “the untimely death of a young expectant mother caused deep upset among hospital staff, particularly those who were directly involved in her care who were saddened and shocked by her tragic death”.

He continued: “The distress of some of these staff members has been exacerbated by verbal and written abuse from members of the public and by the behaviour of some members of the media, albeit a very small minority.”

After the first public meeting of the board of the Galway and Roscommon University Hospital Group on Tuesday evening at NUI Galway, hospital CEO Bill Maher revealed that the staff received “pretty vile” correspondence from around the world.

A number of threats – direct and insinuated – had been made against workers and these were forwarded to the Gardaí.

This week, a spokesperson for HSE West said all staff who were on sick leave “have been supported on a phased return to work and have returned to duty in the last week”.

“Supports have been provided to staff on an ongoing basis. There have been regular debriefing sessions, most recently last Monday and staff have been offered employee support through the Employee Assistance Service, a confidential counselling support and referral service.”

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.