Clinical director of Limerick hospital where Aoife Johnston died, placed on leave due to ‘serious risk to patient welfare’ – The Irish Times

Court documents reveal that the chief clinical director of the Limerick hospital where a teenager died in “unavoidable” circumstances in 2022 has been placed on leave due to an “immediate and serious risk to the safety, health and welfare of patients”.

Last month, Professor Brian Lenehan was placed on temporary administrative leave following an investigation into the death of Co Clare teenager Aoife Johnston, who presented to the emergency department at University Hospital Limerick in December 2022 with treatable sepsis.

He is asking the Supreme Court to order him to be reinstated “immediately” to his position at the hospital. Court documents show he described HSE chief executive Bernard Gloster’s decision to suspend him as a decision that “no rational and reasonable decision-maker could make”.

The documents show that on September 16, Mr Gloster wrote to Professor Lenehan expressing concerns about whether he would continue to be the hospital’s chief clinical director.

“I believe that your continued role as chief clinical director is likely to pose an immediate and serious risk to the safety, health and well-being of patients in the care of UHL and the emergency department,” Gloster said in a letter quoted in Professor Lenehan’s affidavit to the court .

“Given the scope of my concerns and the most exceptional circumstances that have arisen, as well as the seniority, significant (sic) and nature of your role as CCD, I believe it is appropriate to instruct you to take immediate administrative leave on full pay , as Chief Clinical Director, pending an investigation into my concerns.”

In support of his case, Professor Lenehan produced a further affidavit from the deputy chairman of the hospital’s medical committee, Dr Joseph Devlin, who in the affidavit states that he found “no act or omission on (Professor Lenehan’s) part which could conceivably have that they raise any reasonable fear that he or she poses a serious and imminent risk to anyone.”

In his statement, Dr Devlin quotes a transcript of a meeting with Mr Gloster on September 11 to discuss the proposed suspension of Professor Lenehan.

During the meeting, he urged the HSE chief not to make the decision, which is “unfair and destructive” and will “almost certainly worsen the harm” felt by Ms Johnston’s family.

Dr Devlin told the HSE chief that Professor Lenehan’s suspension could damage the participation of clinicians in senior management positions and quoted Gloster’s own view to him that “individual staff should not be held responsible for system failures over which they have no control”.

Professor Lenehan, clinical director of the University of Limerick Hospital Group, last month applied to the High Court to order him to be reinstated in his post pending the conclusion of a disciplinary inquiry. The matter was adjourned to allow the HSE to submit its response. The affidavits given by Professor Lenehan when submitting his application have not been previously reported.

Last month, Gloster, speaking on RTÉ, said six people at the hospital were in various stages of disciplinary proceedings and four were on administrative leave. He did not name any of the people involved. Professor Lenehan is a consultant orthopedic surgeon at Limerick Hospital and has not been suspended from this role. He played no role in Ms. Johnston’s treatment.

In his statement, Professor Lenehan cites a recent report by former Chief Justice Frank Clarke which concluded that Ms Johnston died in circumstances that were “almost certainly avoidable”. The report addressed, among other things, the issue of overcrowding at a hospital in Limerick.

Professor Lenehan said the executive management of the hospital of which he is a member had approved an escalation protocol to ease pressure on the emergency department during periods of overcrowding, but the HSE unit “strongly opposed” the protocol in July 2022, which would lead to its termination. Problems in the emergency department in the fall of 2022 led to the protocol being reinstated.

“The Irish Nursing and Midwifery Organization has strongly opposed the decision to re-implement the escalation protocol,” said Prof. Lenehan.

“In the week leading up to Ms. Johnston’s death, the emergency department was overcrowded and the escalation protocol was implemented to the letter. Unfortunately, for reasons unknown to me, on the evening of December 17, 2022, the escalation protocol was not implemented.”

Professor Lenehan said the letter he received from Gloster in July 2024 raised 22 concerns about his performance as clinical director, 21 of which related specifically to the weekend when Ms Johnston attended hospital.

“None of the concerns relate to any specific act or omission on my part,” he said.

“Mr Gloster has not identified any act or omission by my office that caused or contributed to her death,” Professor Lenehan added in his statement.