Inquest witness is on leave from job as adviser to Health Minister
THE manager who was on call at University Hospital Limerick when tragic teenager Aoife Johnston went there looking for care is on leave from her job as a key advisor to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.
Former rugby international Fiona Steed began working at the Department of Health five months after the 16-year-old died from meningitis.
And she was among the witnesses who gave evidence at the inquest into the young girl’s death this week.
The former hospital general manager told Coroner John McNamara that she had no ‘(executive) powers to compel staff to do what she asked’.
While giving evidence, Ms Steed also claimed that – on the fateful night in December 2022 when Aoife became so seriously ill her parents screamed for help – she had made a number of recommendations, including moving patients from trollies at the hospital’s emergency department to wards.
But according to Ms Steed, she ‘wrongly’ presumed her advice would be acted upon and consequently she had not checked with staff.
Last January, the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed how Fiona Steed had been seconded to work at the Department of Health. Questions were raised at the time about the results of an internal review of Aoife Johnston’s treatment at the hospital in the Mid-West.
And as details of an independent inquiry into the young girl’s death emerged, it was not publicly known that the senior hospital manager on call was now one of Health Minister’s advisors. At the time, the IMOS asked the department whether Ms Steed had informed them about her role at the Limerick hospital in the lead-up to Aoife Johnston’s death. And this weekend, the department was asked again. Officials were also quizzed about when Ms Steed will return to her role as an advisor to Minister Donnelly. A statement issued last night by the Department of Health said: ‘The recruitment of the Chief Health and Social Care Professional (HSCP) Officer was through a national Expression of Interest process and was an open competition.
‘The Chief HSCP Officer commenced secondment to the Department of Health in May 2023 on a three-year contract,’ the statement added.
‘The Department of Health has facilitated Ms Steed in participation in the Inquest and other processes related to her former role,’ it concluded.