‘There has to be a shorter, more compassionate way,’ says woman who considered filing a medical negligence case after her husband’s death

When Bernie O’Reilly’s husband Tony died during elective surgery colon cancershe says she couldn’t understand what had happened.

His death in 2006 left her dissatisfied with aspects of his care and asked many questions of the consultants who operated on him. After his inquest, which revealed that his cause of death was an anastomotic leak, which is a major complication of colorectal surgery, she still felt that issues had been resolved.

At the time, she was considering a lawsuit. “I had to get three expert reports from England. For me, the most important question was how Tony’s surgery was handled. I spent about €10,000 (on the reports) but still no answers came.”

After three years, “I didn’t feel like I was any closer to getting answers and that there was no end in sight. “I was never really looking for compensation, I just wanted the truth,” she said.

Ultimately, Ms. O’Reilly dropped the legal action due to the enormous financial risk involved. There was, she said, the possibility that the family farm could have been lost.

“Lay people have a different opinion than medical people. There needs to be a safe place to have these discussions. But I’m still unhappy that I never got a solution.”

According to the Medical Protection Society (MPS), which provides compensation to 16,000 doctors and other healthcare professionals in Ireland, the average cost of a legal claim for medical negligence in Ireland is almost three times higher than in Britain, and cases take over 50 percent longer to resolve.

According to the association’s report, published in January, it takes on average just over four years (1,462 days) to resolve a claim in Ireland, which is 14 percent longer than South Africa (1,279 days) and 56 percent longer than in Hong Kong (940 days), Great Britain (939 days) and Singapore (938 days).

MPS has urged the government to put in place pre-action protocols to help speed up clinical negligence claims.

These protocols would be guidelines, set out in legislation, explaining the steps a court expects parties to take before a claim can be brought, with the aim of encouraging them to reach a settlement outside of court.

( An ‘adversarial’ approach to clinical negligence has contributed to the state’s €4.1 billion billOpens in a new window )

Dr. James Thorpe, deputy medical director at MPS, said the association is seeing “first-hand” the impact the “painfully slow claims process” is having on doctors’ mental wellbeing.

“Patients and family members are clearly also suffering under the current system. “No patient harmed in Ireland as a result of clinical negligence should have to wait unnecessarily long to receive compensation, and no party involved in the claim should be dragged through a process that takes longer than necessary,” said he.

“With damaging consequences for the mental wellbeing of doctors and patients, delays in patients receiving compensation and eye-watering legal costs impacting the HSE and the cost of doctors’ compensation – the status quo is simply no longer sustainable. ”

( Donnelly says an additional €50 million is needed for clinical negligence cases due to increased claims and settlementsOpens in a new window )

Scarlett O’Sullivan, a senior lawyer at Callan Tansey, who represents patients in clinical negligence claims, said there are “lots of reasons” why these claims are taking longer to conclude in Ireland than elsewhere.

“When a client comes to me, it can take more than twelve weeks before the medical data is received from the HSE. And when we finally have all the necessary documentation and are ready to petition the Supreme Court for a hearing, there are usually no dates available for about 12 months,” she said.

“For example, I requested a date in January 2024, but did not receive a date until March 2025. It can often take two years before an initial hearing even takes place.”

Ms O’Sullivan said taking on a case entails a “huge financial investment for the reports, which could cost several thousand euros”.

‘And usually they are not looking for compensation. They just want answers. Or they say they don’t want another family to go through this,” she said.

In recent weeks, an interdepartmental working group on the rising costs of health-related claims published a report that also recommended, among other things, the implementation of pre-action protocols and the establishment of a vaccine claims scheme.

The working group found that estimated outstanding liability for healthcare claims in Ireland increased by almost two-thirds between 2018 and 2022, from €2.8 billion to €4.6 billion, and “could increase by multiples over the next twenty years if left unchecked.” is done’.

Furthermore, research conducted with people who had faced medical negligence lawsuits illustrated the human cost, with participants describing the process as “triggering, retraumatizing, upsetting, insulting, shocking, terrible, not fit for purpose, and a struggle.”

Minister of Health Stephen Donnelly welcomed the report and said he would set up a group to ensure the recommendations were implemented “without delay”.

Ms O’Reilly said the process of medical negligence cases is “terribly stressful” even though she has withdrawn her case.

‘You’re destroying money. Time is constantly ticking. There is human suffering for everyone: the family, the doctors. There must be an easier way. There has to be a shorter, more compassionate way.”