Maternity services review welcomed
But the patient advocate group says it wants assurances that such a review will take place regardless of the outcome of an internal review by the Department of Health’s chief medical officer.
Dr Reilly was speaking following the RTÉ Prime Time programme which revealed serious failures in the deaths of four babies delivered at Portlaoise between 2006 and 2012. All four were healthy when their mothers went into labour, but the programme found failures to recognise the degree of distress they were in as labour progressed, the improper use of a labour-accelerating drug which increased distress, delays in arranging emergency caesarean sections and the complete absence of foetal blood sampling which is a standard method of establishing if a baby is suffering oxygen deprivation.
Dr Reilly said: “What people seek is an acknowledgment that something’s gone wrong, an apology that it went wrong and an assurance that it won’t go wrong again, because we’ll learn from the experience and things will change and that clearly didn’t happen here in my view.
“I await the full report and I will take whatever actions need to be taken arising from that including Hiqa, whom I consider to be a very independent body, further reviewing the entire service if that’s what’s required.”
Sheila O’Connor of Patient Focus welcomed the minister’s comments.
Parents Roisin and Mark Molloy, who were told their baby son, Mark, was stillborn in 2012 but who later discovered he had a faint heartbeat when born, also want an independent inquiry. They received a report into their son’s death which explained what happened but say they want to know why previous internal reports into the earlier deaths which identified failures and recommended changes in practice, were not acted upon.
Roisin Molloy told RTÉ’s Morning Edition: “We all know why our babies died, we have the reports, so the explanation is about the failures in the maternity unit. What we want to know is how those investigations were carried out repeatedly into baby deaths and the recommendations weren’t implemented. That’s the report we’re looking for.”
As the fall-out from the revelations continued, the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, moved to reassure expectant mothers that maternity services across the country were among the best in the world. Institute spokeswoman Professor Fionnuala McAuliffe said: “There are many pregnant women and their families who may be worried today. We would like to reassure them that they can have confidence in our maternity services.
“Ireland is a very safe country in which to have a baby. We have low rates of perinatal deaths when compared to neighbouring counties such as the UK or France and this rate continues to fall here.”
The HSE said it intends to contact both families, if possible, as soon as is reasonably possible.
A HSE helpline set up at Portlaoise to take calls from worried parents and expectant mothers yesterday has been extended to run over the weekend. It will operate from 9am to 5pm today and tomorrow on 057-8696076.
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