HSE chief Bernard Gloster has said he expects to publish a report into the death of Aoife Johnston at University Hospital Limerick (UHL) in December 2022 next week.
He said he does not intend to interfere in any way with the substance of the report, conducted by former chief justice Frank Clarke, in terms of what is published.
But Mr Gloster said he was also duty bound by law to respect the rights of people.
He said he was also conscious that there is a family coping with the worst possible outcome in the case.
The 16-year-old from Shannon, Co Clare, died of meningitis after she was referred to the hospital's overcrowded Emergency Department with suspected sepsis that went untreated for over 12 hours.
Internal UHL audit report published
Separately, Mr Gloster has responded to the findings of an internal audit report on UHL which found that an open competitive procurement process was not undertaken in relation to the outsourcing of contracts to cut waiting lists.
Of more than €20m spent to cut lists, €2m was to three private companies which had links to staff.
The audit found there was no evidence the staff members were involved in the awarding of contracts.
The audit also found there was no dedicated procurement function in the UHL Group.
Mr Gloster said the HSE was fully transparent in that it published the internal audit reports itself today.
He said it showed challenges in cutting waiting lists and how best to do it using public money.
Mr Gloster said he had ordered the audit reports into three hospitals, including Limerick, when he took up his post.
The outsourcing measures are used by the HSE in different parts of the country to have operations and care provided for public patients in private clinics or hospitals.
In the case of UHL, the outsourcing was also decided due to the geographic location of the private health facilities, the availability and capacity to deliver treatment and provision of aftercare.
