Mr. Bernard Gloster:

Again, Dr. Henry will assist me with the clinical detail, in particular on staff skills and maintenance. The first point is the scale of the decision to move the higher risk pregnancies away from Portiuncula and the number involved. We have not done that before, so the impact of that remains to be seen. We are very mindful in doing so, that there is still a unit functioning with 80% of births continuing to be delivered and registered there. Of course we are equally concerned to ensure the service to those women and their babies.

As to what happens in the future, what I can say to the Deputy is that the decision, fundamentally, came down to a significant out-of-normal range level of deterioration that directly impacted on individual babies and their mothers. Whatever else we do while we are getting to the heart of that, dealing with it and responding to it, the step that was taken was purely on the balance of safety in what is the highest risk specialty we provide across all of our services. Obstetrics and gynaecology is a very high-risk speciality. I am sure Deputy Daly would vouch for that. It is high-risk by its nature. All of the focus is on the appropriate balance of safety, and the maintenance of the service to the women who will continue to go to Portiuncula. Maybe Dr. Henry could talk more to the maintenance of the skill set of staff and the supports that are there now.