Dr. Krysia Lynch:

One of the issues is that we have to ensure as a nation that we are providing the safest possible care for all women and their babies who enter into our maternity services. One of the things we heard from the experts when we were in the strategy deliberations was that we are not currently doing that because we are not providing the various models of care that are most suited to the women that are presenting. That is part of the problem.

In terms of paying money out in the courts, it is very difficult, as Deputy O'Connell has said, to put a price on somebody's life. The brutal economics of health care are such that one is always going to have to make a decision for one very rare case versus the vast majority of cases. I certainly would not like to be making those decisions but they do have to be made.

Open disclosure is very pertinent to a lot of these discussions. Moving towards an environment of open disclosure and perhaps moving towards an environment when we know there is a very unfortunate and tragic outcome that we know how much is required in terms of monetary funds to assist the family during the baby's lifetime, and that also we know what the potential prognosis is for the baby. Sometimes we do not know and that is why we end up having large payments because it is very difficult to identify whether a baby will live for 60 years or only live for five years. One has to make the provision in the courts that the baby will live for 60 years and that it will be provided for. That is perhaps a little outside the remit of today's meeting but it is something that needs to be looked at.