A “on call” radiographer at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda who failed to respond to repeated efforts to contact him to carry out an urgent scan on a seven-month-old baby with a serious head injury, has accepted he is guilty of professional misconduct.
A fitness-to-practice inquiry of CORU – the regulatory body of health and social care professionals – heard the radiographer, Ugochukwu Owoh, made admissions to a series of allegations about his conduct at the hospital last year.
They included that he drove home around four hours before his shift was due to finish at a time he was on-call and supposed to stay within the hospital on April 24th, 2022.
Mr Owoh also accepted that he had failed to close out an urgent review of an elderly man with a suspected stroke in a timely manner and failed to notify a consultant radiologist that scans on the patient had been completed.
That incident occurred within hours of his failure to respond to numerous calls and texts requiring him to carry out an urgent scan on the baby boy on July 24th 2022.
Mr Owoh, who has been registered as a radiographer in Ireland since May 2015, acknowledged that the admissions he made in relation to three different allegations constituted professional misconduct and poor professional performance.
Counsel for CORU, Caoimhe Daly BL, said Mr Owoh’s actions also represented several breaches of the code of professional conduct and ethics for radiographers.
Ms Daly said the inquiry arose on foot of a complaint submitted to CORU by the radiography services manager at Our Lady of Lourdes, Jacqui McGovern, about Mr Owoh who has worked in the hospital since July 2016.
The inquiry held on Tuesday heard that the radiographer was meant to work an on-call shift at the hospital from 5pm on April 23, 2022 until 9am the following morning.
In a statement provided to CORU, a senior radiographer who was on-call from home, Sarah Tully, said she could not believe it when she noticed Mr Owoh driving out of the hospital in his car at around 5am as she was responding to a call to return to Our Lady of Lourdes.
“I knew he should still be on site,” said Ms Tully.
Another radiographer, Chanda Kalumbi, said Mr Owoh had told him he was going to spend a designated rest period in a room in the hospital.
Mr Kalumbi said there was nothing unusual about his colleague’s behaviour earlier in the shift.
The inquiry heard the hospital provided an apartment within its grounds for staff to take rest periods during long shifts.
The hospital’s radiology services manager, Stephanie Kelso, told CORU that Mr Owoh had no reason to explain why he left his shift early when she confronted him about it.
However, Mr Owoh subsequently informed the hospital that he had been feeling unwell but maintained that it had adequate radiographer cover on the night.
Ms Kelso expressed concern that his absence could have caused serious problems if there had been a major trauma incident at the hospital.
The inquiry also heard how hospital staff made repeated unsuccessful attempts to contact Mr Owoh over a six-hour period when he was rostered “on call” but allowed to be at home on July 24th, 2022.
Urgent scan
Ms Daly said Mr Owoh was allowed to be at home on the strict understanding that he was available on his phone.
Counsel said staff at Our Lady of Lourdes had tried to contact the radiographer by phone and by text between 12.12 am and 5.57am to inform him that he was required to carry out an urgent scan on a seven-month-old baby boy.
Ms Daly said the baby has sustained a head injury in a fall and had multiple episodes of vomiting coupled with drowsiness.
Another colleague who was required to perform the scan said Mr Owoh has subsequently told him that he had not heard the calls to his phone.
A switchboard operator at the hospital also noted that Our Lady of Lourdes had no policy on what should be done when consultants cannot be contacted, even though staff had highlighted the need for one.
The inquiry heard that Mr Owoh eventually replied to a WhatsApp message to Ms Kelso at 5.57am by stating: “I’m sorry, Steph. I didn’t hear my phone.”
He subsequently told her that his failure to answer calls and texts was not done on purpose as he believed his phone’s ringtone had inadvertently been turned down while it was in his pocket.
Ms Daly noted that the radiographer had informed the hospital that he was getting a landline installed in his home to prevent a similar situation arising again.
She said a few hours later on the same morning, hospital staff had ordered a “very urgent” scan on an 80-year-old man suspected of having a stroke where “time was of the essence.”
However, Ms Daly said that although Mr Owoh carried out the scan, he had failed to record contrast details and close out the review in a timely manner together with failing to report back to a consultant radiologist about the patient.
The inquiry heard that he “just left and went home.”
The radiographer’s legal representative subsequently informed the hospital that Mr Owoh was suffering from “anxiety and extreme nervousness” from his error a few hours earlier about not being contactable and its consequences.
She also outlined a report from an expert witness which found Mr Owoh’s actions represented professional misconduct and poor professional performance because of their impact on patient care.
The inquiry heard that Mr Owoh was issued with a written warning in October 2022 and has been removed from “on call” duties until the completion of the CORU inquiry. The inquiry is due to conclude on Wednesday.
Details of any sanctions imposed by the Health and Social Care Professionals Council on foot of recommendations from its fitness-to-practise committee will not be made public until they are confirmed and ratified by the High Court.
