Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Independent)

We must have protocols that standardise care across our maternity units so that we no longer have a significant variation. That effort will involve the obstetric community and the new clinical leads the HSE is appointing. In the case of obstetrics, that person is Professor Turner.

These initiatives will go a long way to reassuring patients that patient safety is being taken seriously. Some 70,000 births take place in this country every year and some 14,000 miscarriages, or approximately 20% of all pregnancies. Deputy Reilly referred to 300 telephone calls, but not all those calls are necessarily from women who were subject to a misdiagnosis. We must be clear about that. We do not know what the number is over the past five years but we will when the review is completed and published forthwith.

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