James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

noting with concern:

— that to date the Health Service Executive (HSE) has received almost 300 telephone calls from concerned women and their families about the treatment received in maternity hospitals around the country;

— that to date approximately a dozen women have come forward with stories of having been wrongly told by maternity hospitals that their babies had miscarried, only to give birth later to healthy infants;

— the failure of the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney, T.D., to take direct action on the miscarriage misdiagnosis scandal and to alleviate the concerns of many families facing the trauma of having their case reviewed;

— that six months after Melissa Redmond's erroneous scan, the ultrasound machine at the hospital was still in use;

— that a review carried out by staff at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, completed last December, found that the ultrasound machine displayed 'evidence of fatigue' and that the image resolution was 'not adequate to accurately assess early pregnancies and their complications';

— that people's trust in the HSE has been shattered; and

— that too many families have lost loved ones through various scandals that have emerged in our health services such as those in Portlaoise, the North East, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Ennis in recent years;

recognises the urgent need for the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to conduct an audit of antenatal and maternity services including the standard and safety of equipment, staff workloads, care protocols and training of personnel; and

calls on the Government to establish a dedicated independent Patient Safety Authority, which will incorporate HIQA, to:

— reassure patients that they have a safe place to go with their complaint;

— act as an advocate for them; and

— ensure that investigations take place when and where appropriate.

I wish to share my time with Deputies O'Dowd, Bannon, Tom Hayes, McCormack and McHugh.

See this speech in context