Covid: Campaign group warns outbreak failings still exist

Brenda Doherty's mother Ruth (left) was the fourth person in Northern Ireland to die after having contracted coronavirus

A campaign group has warned many of the failings identified in a report into Covid-19 in Northern Ireland hospitals during the pandemic still exist.

The report, published on Thursday, described outbreaks at two hospitals - where 15 of 32 patients with Covid-19 died - as "catastrophic".

It blamed poor facilities for the high death rate.

Brenda Doherty from Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice said patients are still "vulnerable" to Covid-19.

The report's authors looked at outbreaks between August and October 2020 in Craigavon Area and Daisy Hill Hospitals.

Isolation and toilet facilities were inadequate and ventilation was poor, the report said.

Inpatients and staff should have been tested for Covid regularly, and overcrowding in the Craigavon Area Hospital's emergency department contributed to transmission.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme Ms Doherty said: "These failings existed before the report and a lot of these still exist.

"They haven't changed, I have been talking to family members recently, and I know they still raise concerns.

"The Southern Trust are going to consider the recommendations. We are now in 2023 and they shouldn't be considering anything.

"These recommendations should already have been put in place. "

On Thursday the Southern Trust said it "fully recognised the enormous distress experienced by the families and hospital staff affected."

• Southern Trust Covid outbreaks were 'catastrophic'

A spokesperson said the trust was "committed to learning and improving to help reduce the likelihood of Covid-19 outbreaks in our hospitals and minimise the impact of outbreaks if they occur".

"We will continue to carefully consider the report and its recommendations and involve the families in this process," the spokesperson said.

Ms Doherty, the daughter of the first woman to die in Northern Ireland with Covid-19, said action should have been taken before now.

"Covid has not gone away, people are still being left vulnerable to it".

Ms Doherty's mother Ruth Burke, 82, was infected after being admitted to hospital in March 2020.