Council backs campaign for 'Raychel's Law' imposing truthfulness on health workers

Members backed a motion tabled by Sinn Féin councillor Patricia Logue supporting a campaign for the proposed legislation to be named 'Raychel's Law'.

Colr. Logue moved that the council express "solidarity to the families of Raychel Ferguson, Conor Mitchell, Claire Roberts, Adam Strain and Lucy Crawford following the publication of the report of the Inquiry into Hyponatraemia-related Deaths".

She further proposed that "this Council states that we fully and wholeheartedly support the campaign by Raychel's Ferguson's family for 'Raychel’s Law ' for a Statutory Duty of Candour in honour of those children who have died as a result of Hyponatraemia".

The Council agreed to."write to the Department of Health and urge it to begin proceedings that will introduce a statutory duty of candour".

Raychel was aged just nine-years-old when she died from hyponatraemia - a shortage of sodium in the body - in the Royal Victoria Hospital on June 10, 2001, two days after being admitted to Altnagelvin with stomach cramps.

At the end of January the final report of Mr. John O’Hara’s 14 year Inquiry into Hyponatraemia-related Deaths (IHRD) in the North was published and found there had been several shortcomings in the care the former St. Patrick’s Primary School pupil received before she died.