Maternity provisions - Delivery cap may soon be the reality

Presumably the suggestion from a former master of the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) that a cap would be put on the number of babies to be delivered there next summer was meant to concentrate the minds of the members of the Government.

Peter Boylan’s advice to pregnant women that they could contact their local TDs for a bed in the event of the hospital being full, is too frightening a prospect to consider, even though it may have been said in jest.

However, the suggestion of such a cap is not new and the current Master of the NMH, Dr Declan Keane, had already written to obstetricians to the effect that the hospital had decided to limit the number of patients booking in for the peak months next year.