Families forced to improve HSE

The father of a baby who died in 2012 following failings at the Midlands Regional Hospital in Portlaoise has said it is a disgrace that families have had to drive improvements in services.

A report into the death of baby Mark Molloy was published by the Health Service Executive (HSE) yesterday, two years after its completion.

The report was released at the request of Mark’s parents, Róisín and Mark, and identifies a number of serious failings in the care given to Róisín and baby Mark on January 24, 2012.

The baby died 22 minutes after birth. An investigation into his death was launched after his parents raised concerns about the care provided. The report states evidence was identified that baby Mark was showing signs of foetal distress and that help should have been sought from the obstetric gynaecology clinical team on duty. It says these signs were not identified or acted upon. There was also a failure to fully assess all sections of the cardiotocography, which records the foetal heartbeat.

The report states that foetal blood sampling should have been carried out but that at the time the facilities were not available at the hospital, despite a previous investigation recommending that a risk assessment be carried out to determine the risk of injury to a foetus due to the failure to provide foetal blood sampling.

An incident report carried out at the time of the death could not be found and a retrospective report was written up hours later.

The report contains an apology from the HSE.

A report by the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) released earlier this year into a number of maternity-related failings at the hospital criticised maternity services and found that services were unsafe. In a statement, the HSE said all of the report’s 43 recommendations had been implemented at Portlaoise and in other maternity units.

Baby Mark’s father, Mark Molloy, told RTÉ radio: “It is a shame that we have had to drive to get the report published given its potential for learnings and improvements in practices and services.

“Notwithstanding that we know that Mark’s report was never going to be published, it was never shared among the other hospitals and it was only after Roisin contacted Tony O’Brien two weeks ago to say ‘Mark’s report is still sitting there, we need it published, for the betterment of health services in Ireland’, it was only then did Tony O’Brien move quickly to get the report published.

“Its has been a huge push. It’s a disgrace that with all these departments in place it comes down to families to put this push forward.

“But certainly we are seeing the signs of improvements there. The feedback we have got is that the recommendations have been implemented.”