Health Minister appoints Chair of the Southern Trust Urology Public Inquiry

Health Minister Robin Swann has appointed Christine Smith QC to chair the public inquiry announced in relation to serious concerns about the clinical practice of a hospital consultant.

The Minister announced the inquiry in an Assembly statement in November 2020, in relation to the work of a urology consultant who had retired from the Southern Trust earlier that year.

The Minister today said: “In my statement to the Assembly on 24 November 2020, I said we are only at the start of what is likely to become a long and detailed investigation of the matter and I therefore intended to establish a statutory public inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005. I believe that that is the best way to ensure that the full extent of the concerns is identified and for the patients and families affected to see that all relevant issues are pursued in a transparent and independent way. 

“I have therefore appointed Christine Smith QC as Chair of the Inquiry with the aim of getting the inquiry fully underway by summer 2021. The next step will be to finalise the terms of reference for the inquiry, following engagement with the Assembly’s Health Committee and the patients affected by the lookback, and to finalise the members of the Inquiry Panel.

“Ms Smith is a very experienced Queen’s Counsel with a background in public inquiry work. She is Senior Counsel to the Independent Neurology Patients Recall Inquiry and was Senior Counsel for the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry. She also appeared for the Department of Finance in the RHI Inquiry.  I believe that her professional expertise and recent involvement with inquiries equips her to chair the Urology Inquiry.”

The Minister also today reiterated the unreserved apology to the patients and their families he issued in November, adding: “I wish to reassure them that I will endeavour to ensure that they obtain appropriate treatment and support and the care that they need.”

Notes to editors: 

1. On 31 July 2020, the Southern Trust contacted the Department of Health to report an early alert concerning the clinical practice of a urology consultant who had retired from the Southern Trust in 2020. The Trust informed the Department that, on 7 June, it became aware of potential concerns regarding delays in the treatment of surgery patients who were under the care of the consultant urologist employed by the Trust. As a result of those potential patient safety concerns, an initial look-back exercise in relation to the consultant’s work was conducted to ascertain whether there were other areas of potential concern. The Minister reported the outcome of this exercise and other initial findings in a statement to the Assembly on 24 November 2020.
2. Christine Smith QC was called to the Bar of Northern Ireland in 1985, and in 1996 to the Bar of Ireland.  She became a QC in 2011.  She has had a broad general practice at the Bar, with substantial experience at the Criminal Bar.  She is on the Coroners’ Senior Counsel Panel and the Government Legal Services Senior Panel. From November 2012 to January 2017, she acted as Senior Counsel to the Inquiry into Historical Institutional Abuse, which examined whether there had been systemic failings by institutions or the State in the residential care of children in Northern Ireland between 1922 and 1995.  She was also Senior Counsel for the Department of Finance in the Inquiry into the Renewable Heat Scheme in Northern Ireland and has extensive recent experience of Inquiry work in Northern Ireland.  In May 2019, she was appointed as a Commissioner of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, a role she undertook on a part time basis while maintaining her practice at the Bar. Ms Smith is currently Senior Counsel to the Public Inquiry into the events leading to the recall of neurology patients by the Belfast Trust.
3. For media enquiries please contact DoH Press Office by email: pressoffice@health-ni.gov.uk. 
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