Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children

HIQA Investigation into Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise (Resumed): Parents and Patient Advocates

11:30 am

Photo of Caoimhghín Ó CaoláinCaoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I will close with a last couple of points. I thank Ms O'Connor for her contribution and I commend, as I always have, the work of Patient Focus. She listed a number of hospitals throughout the country that had contacted Patient Focus, following the RTE "Prime Time" programme. She added a very important point about which some of us as members of this committee had been concerned heretofore, which is that these incidents and concerns are not confined to hospital maternity units outside major urban areas. She stated, "There were serious complaints too about care at the three major Dublin maternity hospitals". I ask her to elaborate on that because it is very important. There may be a section of the community which says this is only about Portlaoise, Cavan, Portiuncula or whatever, but it is an issue that every citizen, and in the first instance every mother and prospective mother, should be exercised about. It is imperative that this is addressed universally across the board. I ask Ms O'Connor to elaborate on that.

I refer to the delay in the publication of reviews, as highlighted in Mr. Molloy's report. There was a delay even in the HIQA report with a possible further delay in terms of threatened legal action with the possibility that it would not proceed. I am deeply concerned in my constituency that even though we have had four tragic outcomes, just one fewer than the experience in Portlaoise, we have still to see published a single report on any of those, going back to baby Jamie Flynn in November 2012. That report was suppressed through the courts. The second report is yet to show.

What of the internal HSE address of the tragic outcomes in April and May 2014? We are a full 12 months on. How long does it take for the learning process to get under way? The publication of speedy reports is vital. I ask Ms O'Connor to elaborate on that.

I offer my sincere thanks to all the witnesses.