Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Ward for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the team in the Department of Health, who are dealing with Question Time in the Dáil at the moment.

I agree with the Senator that newborn infants are some of the most vulnerable patients within our health system. For any parent, having a child who is unwell and requires medical care is devastating, particularly at that time. Ensuring good continuity of care for newborns is vital to having the best medical outcomes. The Government has been investing significantly in care for all newborns. I am delighted that, in the past month, further funding has been announced by the Minister for Health to develop four new postnatal hubs. These hubs are delivering vital structured care in the community for women and infants in the first weeks after birth.For some infants, more intensive medical intervention and support is required from birth. Through funding for the national maternity strategy, work is ongoing to train more clinical staff in neonatal resuscitation and a set of national neonatal resuscitation training standards will be published this year. Over 3,200 staff in our health services have undertaken neonatal resuscitation advanced provider training.

As the Senator noted, for infants requiring high levels of medical care, there are 19 neonatal intensive care units, NICUs, across the maternity services in Ireland. There are four level 3 units based at the maternity hospitals for infants with more complex needs, with regional NICUs in Limerick and Galway.

In 2022, CHI opened a new high dependency neonatal unit in Crumlin, as part of its plan to develop a new and highly specialised NICU in the new children’s hospital. Young babies with surgical or complex medical needs are transferred to CHI from neonatal units throughout the country and on admission through the emergency department. The service includes six neonatal high-dependency beds for babies with additional care needs. Together with six well-established neonatal high-dependency beds in Temple Street, this provides specialised cots for a particularly vulnerable group of patients. Funding for an additional 26.5 staff was provided for in 2023 for the neonatology service, with a full year cost of €2.6 million. This was to enhance the service in preparation for the establishment of the NICU in the new children’s hospital. These posts include consultant neonatologists, nurse practitioners, staff nurses and other clinical staff.

To support our medical staff to deliver better continuity of care, we are directing significant investment to eHealth. Through the national maternity strategy, a full electronic health record, EHR, is being rolled out across maternity and neonatal services. An EHR makes it easier for all clinicians to access patient information that is instant, consistent and up to date. It enables more information to be gathered more quickly on how services are operating. Phase 2 roll-out of the maternity and newborn clinical management system will extend this EHR to University Maternity Hospital Limerick and the Coombe. This work is currently under way. This expansion will mean that all stand-alone maternity hospitals have this EHR. It will therefore cover 70% of births nationally, and 60.5% of neonatal intensive care activity.

There has been significant medical progress in the care and lifesaving treatments that can be provided to newborns. I am glad that this Government is supporting clinicians and the wider health system to deliver better outcomes for infants and their families.