‘Maternity services set for more scandals’

Services at maternity hospitals are set to be hit by further scandals because the sector is so under-staffed it would need 550 extra midwives just to reach international best practice guidelines.

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation made the claim last night in response to revelations that at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda between May 2012 and July last year, 21 babies in the breech position went undiagnosed until after the onset of labour.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner in the wake of the latest maternity service difficulties — which follow the Portiuncula, Portlaoise, Sligo General, Savita Halappanavar and foetal heart beat crises, all of which have occurred since 2011 — INMO general secretary Liam Doran said the problems are directly linked to chronic under-staffing and lack of investment.

Despite moving to assure the public the “Trojan work” of frontline staff means the system is safe, the nurses’ representative insisted the problems are “what happens” when resources are cut to the bone.

“We would need 550 extra midwives to reach the needed birth-to-midwife ratio.

“In Ireland the average is one in 42, but according to the Birth Rate Plus levels [international guidelines used in areas with the same demographic as Ireland, such as Britain and the north] the ratio should be one to 26.

“In some Irish hospitals the ratio was one in 55, and at Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda it was one in 47,” he said.

When asked if he still believes maternity services are safe, a comment repeatedly made by Health Minister Leo Varadkar and his predecessors in response to maternity scandals, Mr Doran added: “They are, but this is what happens when you cut. Over the last number of years there’s never been a floor below which the system could go, but there is now.”

The comments came as Fianna Fáil leader and former health minister, Micheál Martin, told the Dáil yesterday the Drogheda scandal is a “serious incident” that has caused a “blow to confidence” in services, and questioned what protections there are for patients.

His party colleague and health spokesperson, Billy Kelleher, said it is important to “reassure” expectant couples the overall system is working, but noted the latest problems had to be responded to “robustly”.

Mr Varadkar has consistently said Ireland’s maternity services are safe by western European standards, a comment repeated after he met the widowers of Dhara Kivlehan and Sally Rowlette, who died after errors at Sligo General in 2010 and 2013.

A nationwide review of maternity services is currently under way due to the deaths of babies at the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise last year.

Last month, a separate scandal over babies dying due to a lack of oxygen emerged at Portiuncula Hospital in east Galway, following Savita Halappanavar’s death in 2012 and doctors wrongly telling pregnant women there was no foetal heart beat, revealed in 2011.

A briefing document on the Drogheda issue will be given to Mr Varadkar by this weekend, but it is understood it will not be further investigated.