Dr. Colm Henry:

The actions taken are certainly not intended as any comment or slight on the staff who are working very hard at Portiuncula to deliver this service in what has been a very difficult year or two for them. They are more a response in terms of patient safety to addressing those people we know are at high risk. We cannot identify everybody who is going to have a difficult birth or complication, but we can identify those women based on the recommendations of the reports we have to date on excessively high numbers of therapeutic hypothermias in Portiuncula hospital and based on the concerns of the external team put in there in January 2025.

Those actions include identification of women that we deem to be of higher risk with pregnancy and ensuring that they are diverted, either at booking from 1 October onwards or, in building on the existing co-management with Galway, that they are diverted for the purpose of intrapartum delivery management in Galway hospital. They include women with a history of a neonatal death or stillbirth, those with a significant medical illness, those with pre-existing diabetes, and those with a history of massive obstetric haemorrhage. I just want to draw a distinction between any commentary on the staff. In response to the Walker report, as the CEO said, there has been enhancement of the services there. This includes, as the Deputy said, over six whole-time equivalent obstetricians, not all of whom are on the rota. There is also a provision of midwives in excess of the birthplus ratio of 1:40; it is 1:25. So, it is not a question of resources it is a question of identifying those women who are high-risk pregnancy whose needs and safety are best addressed in Galway.