Deirdre Clune (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

This is a very important debate as it highlights the need to put patients, patient care and patient access to some form of redress, if that is what is needed, at the heart of our health services. Patients are major stakeholders and that is what the HSE, the Department of Health and Children, health forums and legislative bodies such as this House should always bear in mind. Unfortunately, the incidents that have triggered this debate are stories that have sent a chill through many women.

Many women were told that the foetus they were carrying was no longer viable and that they needed a D&C. We must thank Ms Melissa Redmond and Ms Martha O'Neill Brennan who have come forward with their story. They were brave today and they were very brave at the time that they trusted their instincts that they were still pregnant and they questioned the opinion given to them from an early pregnancy scan. Both women sought a second opinion and today they have healthy and happy children. It is a good story but it is also an alarming story. We need to put structures in place to give reassurances that this cannot happen again.

In June 2009, Ms Redmond went to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital and her story was made public recently. The response from the HSE was that the situation was extremely rare, yet since then we have seen many women come forward with similar experiences. To date, about 12 women have made their stories public and there have been reports of 300 phone calls from concerned women across the country.

We now know that there was faulty equipment involved, such as the ultrasound machine at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. Alarmingly, this machine was still being used almost six months after the misdiagnosis took place. The internal review also recommended a dedicated ultrasonographer be recruited to this unit, yet, one year later, this position has not been filled. The message from the HSE to the women and patients who depend on our health services is stark - the HSE will not serve them. They have no confidence in the HSE and this story is further alienating the public and patients, who are major stakeholders in the health services. They have lost confidence in those who are charged with their care.

I acknowledge that national guidelines are now to be developed and a review to identify all cases of known misdiagnoses is under way. However, would this have happened if the two women had not come forward and used the resources of the media to bring their story to the public? That is why Fine Gael's motion calls for a dedicated independent safety authority. Such an authority could assure patients that there is a safe place to make their complaint, to voice their concerns and to be supported in that process.

HIQA is not a patient safety authority. It sets standards and inspects facilities to ensure that those standards are met. It publishes the findings of their inspections and it takes follow up action if there is a risk to safety. However, it does not have the remit to be a complaints body and it does not have the capacity or the mechanisms to be a complaints body. The creation of a patient safety authority has been recommended by Fine Gael for a long time. It was part of our policy in a previous administration and I strongly support it tonight.

Having a baby is a major part of a woman's life. For many of them, it may be their first brush with the health services and they want their baby's health to be protected during their pregnancy. They want to trust their health services. I acknowledge that we have excellent maternity care. The figures on mortality rates are proof of that. Nonetheless, we have a growing population and the number of births is increasing year on year. We will have 80,000 births this year, whereas last year it was 75,000. It is estimated they are 7,000 births a year in Cork University Maternity Hospital, which was opened in 2007, but last year there were 9,000 births in that hospital. That highlights that in the short time since that hospital was opened there is already a capacity issue in it.

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