Minister to review hospital death

Janine Murtagh died after a routine abdominal operation

The health minister has agreed to review all papers relating to the death of a woman following routine surgery at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital.

Janine Murtagh, 31, from Crumlin died after her bowel was ruptured during surgery in October 2002.

Her husband, Stephen, and her sister, Linda, met Health Minister Shaun Woodward on Sunday.

He said the meeting had been positive, adding: "We went into detail about the investigation and our concerns."

Mr Murtagh has raised concerns about the failure of staff to notice after surgery that his wife's bowel had been ruptured, and the delay that occurred in trying to get her into an emergency operating theatre.

Mr Murtagh said: "We discussed in particular the issue of the theatres which has been an ongoing saga in the last two years.

"We have concerns about the availability of theatre in the Royal for the two days that Janine was in the hospital.

"We certainly gave him enough to think about."

Mr Murtagh confirmed Mr Woodward had agreed to come back to the family in September to discuss the case after reviewing all the papers.

The surgery was carried out at the Royal Victoria Hospital

The Royal Victoria Hospital has previously apologised for the death of Mrs Murtagh who was a nurse at the hospital.

The family members were accompanied to the meeting at Hillsborough Castle by DUP MP Iris Robinson, who had requested the meeting.

She said: "I have to say the minister was very, very focussed on the case and I think it is fair to say he was very sensitive to what Stephen and Linda had gone through.

"I believe we got the best that we could expect today from him in that he's going to reflect on all the issues we have raised."

In February, a report into Mrs Murtagh's death made 11 recommendations and identified areas of concern.

The recommendations included the need for better training of staff and clearer guidelines about what to do when things go wrong.

The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority's report - commissioned by former health minister Angela Smith a year ago - was critical of the team working at the Royal.

The report found there was confusion about access to emergency theatres.

The review's authors said nurses and doctors were not sufficiently sensitive to a patient whose condition did not improve as would be expected.