Hospital where babies died was ‘abandoned’

A senior nurse at the midlands hospital where a number of babies died in controversial circumstances has claimed the hospital was "essentially abandoned" years ago.

He also said people were coming into Portlaoise hospital asking if it was “safe” and if their loved ones would be cared for.

Joe Hoolan, a clinical nurse manager at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise, said key personnel in the health service had paid regular visits over the years and were well aware of the problems there, but nothing had been done.

“Portlaoise has been visited by all the clinical care groups over the years. The Department of Health was down. The Special Delivery Unit are in every six to eight weeks. We met them all the time. The problems were all well known in that hospital,” Mr Hoolan said, adding that the hospital was “essentially abandoned many years ago”.

“No resources were put into it. It got busier and busier and busier.

“It’s the second busiest regional hospital in the country after Drogheda, outside of the major cities. But it got no resources, the budget got cut year after year. The maternity unit is a typical example of what happens when you treat a hospital in that manner.”

Midwifery staffing numbers had decreased at the hospital but “were never increased when mistakes were made”, said Mr Hoolan.

A report into the deaths of a number of babies at the hospital over a six-year period, published in February, found maternity services at the hospital were neither safe nor sustainable.

Mr Hoolan said more visits from key personnel in clinical care programmes and the department followed publication of the report, during which there were “frank conversations” with staff, but they had yet to receive any feedback.

Working at the hospital in the current climate was “difficult”, he said, but the staff had received plenty of support.

“People coming in have all said: ‘Look we support you, you’re doing a great job keep it up’, but it has been very difficult,” said Mr Hoolan. “Some people have come in and asked us: ‘Is it safe? Can you guarantee me that my son, my daughter, my mother, my father are going to be cared for?’ which, of course, is understandable. But it’s day by day, we’re working to get through it.”

Mr Hoolan said he welcomed the recruitment campaign to boost midwifery numbers at the Portlaoise unit “which is very important, because when you are the worst-staffed maternity unit in the country, you can’t stand over it”.

Last January, the unit had the lowest ratio of midwifes to births in the country, at 1:70. In Britain, the ratio is 1:29.5.

Meanwhile, department of health secretary general Ambrose McLoughlin, who was deputising at the conference for Health Minister James Reilly, said the recommendations of the report on Portlaoise were currently being implemented.

“I am confident they will ensure that patient safety is everyone’s priority and reassure patients that our health services are of the highest quality in terms of care and safety,” said Dr McLoughlin.