Tragedy calls for health review

Neither recriminations nor Dáil debates will restore the life of Bronagh Livingstone, the new-born ba

The Minister for Health, Micheál Martin, has ordered a full inquiry into the baby girl’s death, yet there is no mystery as to why or how it happened. Quite simply, her mother, who was 24 weeks pregnant and in an advanced stage of labour, was denied treatment at Monaghan General Hospital.

Instead, Denise Livingstone was dispatched by ambulance to the hospital in Cavan 40 miles away, but gave birth to the premature baby before she reached it. Tragically, the infant girl died later in the hospital.

In whatever guise, the State is responsible for this appallingly sad death, one which could have been avoided had the proper facilities been in place in Monaghan.

But they were not. The maternity unit, vital to any community, had been closed down and the unfortunate mother was not even given emergency treatment. That was not provided because emergency services were removed from Monaghan after accreditation for junior doctors in anaesthetics failed to be secured.

Incredibly, the hospital is operating an emergency service which was available only between nine o’clock in the morning and five o’clock in the afternoon.

Such a curtailed emergency service, office hours only, in a hospital absolutely beggars belief in this day and age.

Last August, a 35-year-old woman died from a heart attack en route to Dundalk Hospital, despite the fact that she lived a few minutes from Monaghan Hospital.

It is ironic that only this week campaigners against the downgrading of Monaghan General Hospital called on the Minister for Health to take action against the North Eastern Health Board (NEHB) if it did not reinstate recently withdrawn hospital services, including the maternity unity.

That was the most recent call they made. Other such calls on the minister, the NEHB and to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, elicited no practical response.

The anger and frustration of the local community at being deprived of some of the most fundamental and crucial health services was reflected in the fact that an independent candidate was elected on a health ticket in the general election.

The death of baby Bronagh is a cruel blow to her parents and family. What should have been a happy event turned to tragedy. It also has implications, not just for the community in Monaghan but for the entire country, because little Bronagh was the victim of a policy which put economics before people.

Across the country people were shocked and stunned to learn of the circumstances of her death, but the facts underlie the glaring truth that our health service is inadequate.

The Minister for Health said yesterday that if a person is in an emergency situation the idea of a hospital saying, without any assessment at all, that they were not taking that person in is not acceptable. But the minister and the NEHB were only too well aware that the hospital only dealt with emergencies during office hours.

Responsibility must be accepted for this awful tragedy. This issue cannot be allowed to become obfuscated with the setting up of another inquiry. A fundamental review of how damaging our health service policies are must be undertaken as a matter of urgency.