Canning HSE award less than legal costs

The settlement between the HSE and the late independent midwife Philomena Canning was less than the legal costs for the action brought by the midwife.

Ms Canning, who died last March, settled with the HSE in the weeks before her death in an attempt to access a life-saving cancer drug. She had sued the HSE following her suspension as a midwife in 2014 on what turned out to be completely false grounds.

According to figures seen by the Irish Examiner, the case was settled with a payment of €353,000 to Ms Canning. Her legal team was paid €274,016 and the HSE’s legal costs amounted to €206,161.

Ms Canning had refused an earlier settlement on the basis that she wanted the circumstances around her suspension to be fully aired in open court.

Ms Canning was the leading midwife in the area of homebirths before she was suspended in September 2014.

Her suspension was over two complaints generated within the HSE about incidents at births where she provided midwifery services. One element of one of the complaints was that she had used an “inappropriate” term in a text message.

The suspension was withdrawn the following February after three expert reports into the complaints all cleared her and referenced her practice in glowing terms.

She never recovered from the suspension which effectively ended her practice.

Prior to her death in March she gave a lengthy interview to the Irish Examiner and access to her legal documents in order that the circumstances around her suspension would be made public after her death.“I’ve run out of time,” she told the Irish Examiner last February from her hospital bed.

The HSE has been dragging its heels with this court case and the only thought on my mind since the day I was diagnosed was am I going to last till I end to the end of this case. The idea of going to my grave without getting to the end is unbearable.”

The documents suggest a fractious relationship between Ms Canning and the HSE which she claimed was culturally hostile to the practice of homebirths.

Ms Canning was at an advanced stage of establishing a birth centre in Dublin to provide for births in a domestic setting at the time of her suspension.

The plans, which would have brought Ireland into line with other European counties in this regard, were never completed after her suspension.