Safety statements for 19 maternity units published

The first monthly safety statements published for all 19 of the country’s maternity units show widely differing levels of births by caesarian section as well as perinatal mortality rates.

While Dublin’s National Maternity Hospital (NMH) and Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) had relatively similar numbers of total births in December at 780 and 676 respectively, CUMH had a caesarean section rate of 34.4% compared to a rate of 26.9 for NMH.

And while CUMH had a perinatal (stillborn and early newborn) mortality rate of 4.5 per 1,000 total births, NMH’s rate was zero.

The HSE emphasised data should be interpreted with caution “particularly when reporting low numbers which may vary naturally from month to month and are influenced by case complexity”. The widely differing number of births across units must also be taken into consideration.

Nonetheless, the high rates of caesarean births are notable. The lowest rate, 21.3%, was in University Hospital Waterford, the highest was 40.3% in South Tipperary General.

The figures also detail numbers of clinical incidents — events or circumstances that did, or could have, resulted in unnecessary harm to a patient. There were 158 such incidents in the NMH, 86 in the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital, and 72 in CUMH.

Professor Michael Turner, national clinical lead of the HSE’s National Clinical Programme for Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said Ireland is the world leader in publishing timely safety data “which will assist local and national hospital managers in maintaining and improving the quality of care across the country’s maternity services”.

“The publication of this data should also provide welcome reassurance for women using our services.”