Mothers-to-be confused after tragedy

EXPECTANT mothers in Co Monaghan are making plans to spend the last weeks of pregnancy close to hospitals in Cavan and Drogheda because of fears of a repeat of the baby Bronagh Livingstone tragedy.

Mothers-to-be are to seek direction from medical staff when they attend ante-natal clinics as to what they should do in the event of an emergency.

In the absence of clear instructions, some women are planning to leave home and stay with relatives or friends closer to maternity services as their due date draws near. "They are confused and in a dilemma," said Monaghan Community Alliance chairman Peadar

McMahon, who has been campaigning for the restoration of services to Monaghan General Hospital. "If, God forbid, something goes wrong, they don't know if they should jump in the car and head straight for Cavan without any medical staff accompanying them or take up valuable time going to Monaghan first to get an ambulance to Cavan so they will have a medical technician with them."

Inspectors appointed by Health Minister Micheál Martin to inquire into the circumstances surrounding Bronagh's death visited Monaghan and took statements from medical staff last Friday.

Their report is due on the minister's desk today or tomorrow and a spokesman for Mr Martin said last night he was committed to making their findings public as soon as possible. The minister appointed Dr Seán Daly, Master of the Coombe Hospital in Dublin, and midwife Maureen Lynott, who is also in charge of the National Treatment Purchase Fund, to head the inquiry last week after the death of Bronagh following her premature birth in an ambulance. Her mother, Denise, had been driven by her partner to Monaghan in the early hours of the morning, but was redirected to

Cavan because maternity services have been suspended in Monaghan in a dispute over budgets.

Mr McMahon appealed yesterday for the North Eastern Health Board to temporarily divert funds from non-essential projects so that maternity services could be restored until a permanent source of funding was secured. "Money being spent on statistic gathering, surveys and social research could be temporarily diverted to more urgent needs. It's important to know people's eating habits or whatever else it is they're researching, but it's not life and death. It could wait."

But he also warned that the debate about the hospital was in danger of being lost in rows over money. "It's not more money we're looking for it's better use of existing money. They say we can't have specialist medical staff waiting in Monaghan for an emergency that might happen once every three years, but if there was any logic, the staff would be busy doing work other hospitals can't cope with and be available if an emergency arose.

"We now have an obstetrician getting paid €100,000 a year and he's not allowed practice. It makes no sense to him or to us, and yet every time we try to raise the issue of Monaghan Hospital, we're told how much is being ploughed into the health services."