Health minister apologises for 'evil' at Muckamore Abbey Hospital

The health minister has once again apologised for what he described as the "evil" perpetrated at Muckamore Abbey Hospital in County Antrim.

Speaking in the assembly, Mike Nesbitt said what happened was a " true scandal".

On Thursday, a long-awaited report into abuse at the hospital said a number of patients suffered physical abuse, including black eyes, broken bones, bruising and excessive restraint.

Nesbitt said the weight of evidence had provided a "watershed" moment for the treatment and care of the most vulnerable in society.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has said its Muckamore investigation is the biggest criminal adult safeguarding case of its kind in the UK.

In the assembly on Monday, Nesbitt said the report "helps us understand the failings of the past, and provides a road map for the work needed to address those issues".

But, he said, it was "vital that we now move forward as a health and social care system, and importantly as a society, into a safer, more inclusive and accepting future for those most vulnerable in our society".

He said a summit will take place with leaders from across the health and social care service to discuss a way forward.

He said he would set out his "vision and expectations regarding our collective responsibility as an HSC system to strengthen patient safety, culture, governance and accountability" during the summit.

Chaired by Tom Kark KC, the public inquiry ran for three years from June 2022, hearing oral evidence from 181 witnesses and more than 300 statements.

The report into what happened inside the hospital found that many patients had their lives made "miserable" by systematic bullying by certain members of staff whose job it was to look after them.

The report also made it clear that abuse did not involve every patient nor every member of staff, nor a majority of the staff.

The report said that the "attitude of the Belfast trust", seen in correspondence sent on its behalf during the course of the inquiry, gave rise to "serious concern as to whether the Belfast Trust has the capacity to change its ways independently and without external forces brought to bear".

The trust's chairman, Stuart Elborn, offered "an unreserved apology" and said it took "full responsibility" for people being failed on many levels over many years.