The head of Northern Ireland’s health watchdog has said its regular governance processes were “missing” at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Briege Donaghy, chief executive of the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA), told the UK Covid-19 inquiry significant decisions were made “without the effective scrutiny and oversight”.
In 2020, several senior RQIA staff were redeployed and its entire board resigned after a row over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
Ms Donaghy said there was “anxiety” within the watchdog and Stormont’s Department of Health to ensure what happened would “never recur”.
The inquiry in London is examining the impact of the pandemic on the social care sector.
It aims to consider government decision-making, steps taken to prevent the spread of Covid in care homes, and their capacity to respond to the pandemic.
In June 2020 the entire RQIA board quit, claiming they were not consulted on several decisions taken by the health department.
These included reducing care home inspections and redeploying senior RQIA staff some months earlier to other health bodies.
An independent review in 2021 found several issues led to the mass resignations, including breakdowns in working relationships.
Ms Donaghy joined the RQIA in July 2021 as chief executive.
She told the inquiry that a lot of senior experience “was gone” when several senior staff were redeployed during the pandemic.
“The regular processes of governance were missing, and the challenge and oversight of decision-making was not what it should have been,” she added.
Ms Donaghy, who previously worked in a senior role in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust, said it was “shocking” when the RQIA board resigned.
“In the height of a pandemic, to be facing into such organisational issues, I mean, it would not be welcome at any time but it was particularly difficult at that time,” she said.
She said it meant significant decisions were being made “without the effective scrutiny and oversight”.
Ms Donaghy said the RQIA last week signed off a “partnership agreement” with the Department of Health following the independent review by David Nicholl.
“It has taken us a considerable time to get to this point,” she added.
“I think it demonstrates the level of anxiety on both the Department of Health, and us in RQIA, to ensure what occurred and reported under the Nicholl report will never recur.”
The inquiry was launched in 2022 by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said the government’s actions would be put “under the microscope”.
