Savita’s father unhappy over the progress of probe into her death

London: Andappa Yalagi , the father of Savita Halappanavar, who has died in Ireland following refusal of doctors for abortion, has appealed to the Irish Government to hold a public inquiry into savita’s death. Andappa said that the family was not happy with the probe so far.

“We would like to appeal to Irish Government to please consider funding public inquiry. We are not happy with the progress made so far. We all don’t understand the Health Service Executive (HSE) investigation. So once again I ask the Irish Government to consider funding a public inquiry,” Yalagi, said.

Savita’s husband Praveen Halappanavar’s attorney Gerard O’Donnell has also said his client was prepared to go to the European Court of Human Rights if an independent public inquiry was not set up.

However, the HSE has said it owns them. The Ombudsman has said it is unlikely her office would have a role in this dispute. Praveen had met Minister for Health James Reilly for 25 minutes in Galway last Friday.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) will publish the terms of reference of its inquiry into her death this week. The investigation, for which no time span is indicated, will make use of outside expertise, a spokesman indicated.

The authority said it would investigate the safety, quality and standards of services provided by the HSE at Galway University Hospital to “critically ill patients, including critically ill pregnant women, as reflected in the care and treatment provided to Savita Halappanavar”.
Galway University Hospital last night confirmed it would co-operate fully with the Hiqa inquiry.