Maternity services review deferred after resignation

A review of maternity services in the West triggered in part by the death of Savita Halappanavar has been shelved.

Tue, 24 Jun, 2014 - 01:00

Catherine Shanahan

The decision, confirmed yesterday by the HSE’s West/North West Hospitals Group, comes in the wake of the resignation of group chairman Noel Daly earlier this month after it emerged he had a 50% stake in the consultancy D&F Health Partnership — which carried out the review.

The Hospitals Group said consultation on the future of maternity services in the region will now be subsumed into a national review of maternity services currently underway.

Fianna Fáil’s Seanad spokesman on health Marc MacSharry said a number of questions remain following the shelving of the review including who took the decision to commission it in the first place.

Mr MacSharry questioned if the board had known about it or the head of the HSE, Tony O’Brien, or the Health Minister, James Reilly. “If not, who is responsible? To what extent will this failed and flawed report inform the national position now? These are all central issues that need to be addressed if this national review is to have any credibility,” said Mr MacSharry.

The review, reported on previously, outlined six options for the reconfiguration of maternity services including doing nothing or closing up to four maternity units in either Ballinasloe, Letterkenny, Sligo or Mayo.

The option of downgrading services to midwife-led rather than consultant-led units was also proposed.

Mr MacSharry said there had been no public consultation with patients before the review, which was not put out to tender, was prepared. He called on the health minister to outline the terms of reference which informed the report now being abandoned and those which undermine the national review.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said the findings of the HSE review into how D&F Health Partnership was awarded the contract “should be published immediately and minister Reilly must come into the Dáil and deal fully with questions around this scandal”.