Babies ‘at risk of infection’ in National Maternity Hospital

Overcrowding in the State’s busiest maternity hospital left vulnerable newborns at an increased risk of infection, it has emerged.

The National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, Dublin, which delivered almost 9,500 babies last year, had 46 babies in a neonatal intensive-care unit designed to accommodate 36.

One cot was partially blocking a fire exit and another was near a sink that might pose a risk of a waterborne infection.