Exactly one year ago today, on 6th March 2025, I sent an email to you all individually to complain about numerous negligent practices experienced in University Hospital Limerick (UHL) that almost took my mother’s life in January/February 2025.

This first complaint was on negligence experienced with UHL’s prescriptions (6th March 2025), my second complaint was on negligence experienced with UHL’s discharges (18th March 2025) and my third complaint was on negligence experienced with UHL”s accident and emergency department (21st March 2025).

All three complaints are attached as well as a summary outlining the numerous negligent practices experienced by my mother and the compounding effects of same.

I had already complained in detail about these dangerous processes that we experienced with my late Dad’s care in UHL in the summer of 2023. The complaints on my late Dad’s care were never resolved and so these dangerous processes went on to do more damage to patients, almost taking my mother’s life in early 2025.

My mother and my family are yet to receive a written apology from UHL or the HSE and my complaints are unresolved despite consistent follow up with you all over the past year.

What  I have learned about UHL and the HSE’s complaints process over the past year explains very clearly why you (UHL and the HSE) cannot solve your problems and why you both have been plagued by crisis after crisis for decades.

What I learned also explains how my complaints on my mother’s care in UHL and my previous complaints on my late Dad’s care in UHL can all go unresolved.

• My complaints weren’t just unresolved, they were ignored.
• Not just ignored once but ignored time and time again.
• Not just ignored by your HSE’s complaints process ‘Your Service, Your Say’ but also ignored by you all, at the top, who have the power to improve processes and save lives.

Below is your response to my complaints – some of you ignored me completely and some of you corresponded with me and then ignored me.

In the Lean world, there is no blame on people which is why there are no names from UHL and the HSE mentioned here and no names mentioned throughout my complaints. 

Every single member of staff in University Hospital Limerick go above and beyond for their patients every minute of every day. The staff in UHL treated my family with the utmost of care and respect and they are a credit to UHL. My complaints are not against the staff of UHL – my complaints are against the archaic processes and systems in UHL that make it impossible for the staff to give the highest standard of healthcare that they are capable of. 

Whilst there is no blame on people in the Lean world, there is a need for responsibility and accountability by those in leadership positions.

CEO of the HSE:

Your office ignored all my emails – except for one response (after 5 months of emails from me) requesting my mother’s details yet I never received a follow up response after that.

CEO of UHL:

Your office ignored all my emails – except for one response because I asked for confirmation that you received my 3 complaints.

I received the confirmation that your office wishes ‘to acknowledge receipt of your email below and confirm receipt of your 3 complaints. We will bring your email to the CEO’s attention and revert to you.’

I never heard from your office again, even though you had previously corresponded with me on my late Dad’s complaints, which also never got resolved.

REO of the Mid West:

You met with me once and did verbally apologise for what I outlined in my complaints, we corresponded for a while which gave me a glimpse of hope yet your office then ignored my emails.

Your Service,Your Say – the HSE’s complaints process:

I’ve been through the HSE’s complaints process, Your Service,Your Say, twice with complaints on the same life threatening and dangerous practices in University Hospital Limerick (a&e, prescriptions, discharges).

Both times I ended up being ignored with no resolution of my complaints.

Both times I learned what really happens in UHL and the HSE’s complaints process. What I found is shocking, the HSE does have a documented complaints process in terms of the stages of Your Service,Your Say, yet this is not the reality.

https://www2.hse.ie/complaints-feedback/your-service-your-say-stages/

Both times I have got as far as Stage 2 yet never received the report that would complete Stage 2, I was then ignored and my complaints went unresolved. Life threatening and dangerous practices in UHL went unresolved and ignored – twice.

If UHL and the HSE can get away with ignoring me and my complaints, who and what else are they ignoring?

Your Service,Your Say   – the HSE’s complaints escalation process:

On 15th August 2025, through the Your Service,Your Say complaints officer I was dealing with, I requested that my complaints be escalated to Stage 3 of the Your Service,Your Say complaints process as Stage 2 was obviously never going to be concluded.

Despite numerous follow up emails from me, I have never received a response to this request – my emails have again been ignored.

I’d like to point out that the complaints officer that I was dealing with in Your Service,Your Say was always kind, understanding and professional to me yet they are working within an archaic system that literally doesn’t allow them to do what is best for patients and their families.

As advised by your HSE website – to escalate a complaint, I emailed the Your Service,Your Say generic email address twice – yoursay@hse.ie.

I never received a reply to these emails.

As advised by your HSE website I then phoned Your Service, Your Say to escalate my complaints – they had received my emails and they had sent them to University Hospital Limerick.

So the escalation process for the HSE’s complaints is to send the complaints back to the health service we are complaining about – in this case University Hospital Limerick.

This is not escalation of complaints, this is dodging responsibility and accountability.

Whilst the HSE website promotes a robust complaints process with clear levels of escalation and a commitment to resolving complaints, the truth of the HSE’s complaints process is far from this. 

https://www2.hse.ie/complaints-feedback/

We all deserve a problem solving, solution orientated, patient centric complaints process with clear levels of escalation and transparency into the improvements implemented as a result of our complaints.  

This does not exist in UHL & the HSE.

The office of the Ombudsman:

As advised by your HSE website, to further escalate my complaints, I then phoned the office of the Ombudsman.

The office of the Ombudsman advised to send them my complaints, evidence of what I have done to follow up on them, evidence of what UHL & the HSE have done and why I’m not happy.

This is where I currently am, exactly one year after submitting my complaints on University Hospital Limerick’s dangerous a&e department, dangerous prescriptions process and dangerous discharges process.

Outside of UHL and the HSE, I contacted the following people for support,

CEO of HIQA:

The CEO of HIQA sent my complaints to one of their Regional Managers and the Head of Healthcare Services who have been an immense support to me. I am grateful for their consistent correspondence to me and their follow up with UHL.

Unfortunately follow up with our health services by HIQA doesn’t ensure improvement – improvement depends on how much the healthcare service, in this case University Hospital Limerick, wants to improve. 

HIQA doesn’t have any power over our health services which is insane – why does our government create an outstanding regulatory authority of healthcare standards yet doesn’t give them power to implement these standards?

Minister Niall Collins TD:

Niall and Helen in his office have been incredibly supportive by corresponding with me and sending my complaints to the office of the Minister of Health for which I am very grateful. 

Of course we shouldn’t have to contact government Ministers to get our healthcare complaints escalated yet that’s what I had to do.

Minister for Health:

Whilst I am grateful for the response to escalation of my complaints from the Minister for Health, I was saddened to be told to go back to the HSE as

‘there are rigorous processes in place for any individual who wishes to raise a concern regarding their treatment in our health service’.

The HSE complaints processes aren’t rigorous – they are poor and ineffective, they send people around in circles, there is no accountability and responsibility, there is no escalation process, the processes do not lead to improvement and all of this only serves to further frustrate those who complain.

If University Hospital Limerick and the HSE want to ignore you, they will and there is very little we, as members of the public, can do about it. I’m sure I’m not the only person whose complaints have been ignored by our health services.

I no longer have any interest in following up on my complaints with UHL and the HSE.

One year is enough time to complain about life threatening and dangerous practices without resolution. Complaints on my late Dad’s care, on the same life threatening and dangerous practices  (a&e, prescriptions and discharges) are now over 2 years old, without resolution. 

Complaining to UHL and the HSE had been a tedious exercise and I’m tired of trying to get UHL and the HSE to take my complaints seriously and resolve them.

What I do have interest in is keeping my promise to my late Dad.

During the summer of 2023, as advised by University Hospital Limerick’s healthcare staff,  I complained to the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). 

The PALS team were kind and professional and we spoke for over 2 hours. The PALS team agreed that nobody should experience the negligence we had done yet advised they wouldn’t be taking any action, that taking action on complaints wasn’t their role. 

PALS advised me to email Your Service, Your Say! 

After relaying this information to my Dad, I made him a promise. I promised my Dad that I would hold UHL accountable for the negligence he endured and their lack of action to mitigate this negligence. Little did I know then that we would experience the same negligence in UHL (a&e, prescriptions and discharges) 18 months later with my mother’s care.

Little did I know then that my subsequent complaints would end up being ignored and go unresolved – twice. 

UHL and the HSE may not want to listen to me yet I’m sure the public will be very interested in what I have to say.

Instead of wasting my time on UHL and the HSE, I now plan to,

⭐️ Publish every word that I have written to UHL and the HSE so that everyone is aware of the negligent practices that they both so easily turn a blind eye to.

⭐️ Share my learnings on UHL and the HSE’s sub standard complaints process, the escalation process that doesn’t exist and the dangerous and archaic way they deal with complaints.

⭐️ Keep my promise to my late Dad and hold UHL accountable for the pain they caused him in the final months of his life, for the precious life they almost took from my mother and the unprofessional and unacceptable way they have treated me and my complaints.

I started sharing my story in The Examiner last year,

Nothing will improve at UHL without a problem-solving culture

I have published this letter as an open letter to UHL and the HSE on my website and I look forward to sharing more detail on all of the above here.,

Open Letter to UHL and the HSE

Regards,

Siobhain Danaher