Baby’s death sparks hospital fears

COMMUNITIES in Monaghan are pleading with the Health Service Executive to drop plans to downgrade smaller hospitals following the death of a two-week-old baby who had to endure a two-hour ambulance journey to Dublin because there was no local neo-natal intensive care unit.

The infant, the only child of a 23-year-old woman from Clones, Co Monaghan, died just over a week ago at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, a short time after collapsing from a previously undetected heart condition.

Doctors at Monaghan General managed to revive the baby before arranging an emergency ambulance transfer to Dublin with a consultant and nurse on board and a garda escort leading the way, but the infant did not recover.

The case has brought back memories of baby Bronagh Livingstone, who died in December 2002 after she was born during an ambulance transfer from Monaghan General because, due to the scaling down of services, the hospital was not allowed to admit emergencies.

Emergency services were restored earlier this year following an intensive campaign by local people, but Monaghan Hospital Action Group spokesman Peadar McMahon said the response was “half-hearted.”

“This time at least Monaghan was able to take in the baby and it was resuscitated and stabilised, which shows the importance of having emergency facilities, but what good are they if you have then to ship the child out and send it miles away. The good work of the doctors in Monaghan may well have been undone.”

Monaghan lost its maternity unit in 2001 and while Cavan General Hospital, where the baby was born, retained its unit, it has no specialist intensive care facilities for newborns. The nearest such facility in the Republic is in Dublin, 120km (75miles) away.

“We can’t say for sure whether the baby would have survived, but at least we should have been able to give it the best possible chance of survival. Survival should not depend on geographical location, but the truth is, if this child had been born in Dublin it would have got specialist care much quicker.”

Mr McMahon said he hoped the incoming chief executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE), Professor Brendan Drumm, would use his influence to prevent further scaling down of services in community hospitals as envisaged under the controversial Hanly Plan, which recommends centralisation of specialist services in large regional centres.

Mr McMahon also said local people were nervous that emergency services at Monaghan might be withdrawn again after it emerged a consultant surgeon appointed to assist there is only available for elective surgeries during office hours from Monday to Friday.

A spokeswoman for the HSE North-Eastern Region said emergency services at Monaghan were not under threat. She confirmed that an ambulance transfer to Dublin had been arranged for a baby brought to Monaghan the Saturday before last but said no inquiry was under way.

Monaghan: timetable of trouble

December 2002: Baby Bronagh Livingstone dies after her mother is turned away from Monaghan General. An inquiry finds they should not have been moved from the hospital.

October 2004: Benny McCullagh, aged 72, dies of heart attack after being sent on 40-minute drive to Cavan General when Monaghan General was 500 yards from his home.

October 2004: A 64-year-old female patient of Monaghan General has to be transferred because she needs intensive care treatment and ends up in hospital in the North.

December 2004: A 55-year-old man is dead on arrival at Cavan General after suffering a heart attack minutes from Monaghan General.