Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for giving me the opportunity to raise this important issue. I acknowledge the presence of the Minister for Health. I welcome the establishment of an independent investigation into the issues surrounding the care of seven babies at Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe.

The least the parents deserve is to know the truth about what happened in the cases of each of the seven children. I reassure expectant mothers that Portiuncula Hospital has been audited on a number of occasions since the initial review began and has come through each one. Expectant mothers have nothing about which to be concerned with regard to their care in the hospital.

I wish to raise a specific issue of concern which needs to be included in this investigation. This is the fact that HSE management was made aware of the staffing, supervision and training concerns by staff and midwifery management as far back as July 2013. Midwives in Portiuncula Hospital have consistently highlighted the lack of inadequate staffing at the maternity unit. Instead of having one midwife to 28 births, last year Portiuncula Hospital operated on a ratio of one midwife to 54 births, which is almost half the number of midwives required.

In July 2013 the staffing situation was so serious the matter was brought directly to the attention of the group chief executive officer, Bill Maher, the group chief operating officer, Tony Canavan, and the group clinical director, Dr. Pat Nash. The correspondence informed all three that funding was needed to appoint midwifery trainers in all of the maternity hospitals in the group. The communication circulated to the three most senior managers of the hospital group stated these appointments were important to ensure recommendations and learning from recent reports were applied. This took place less than one month after the HSE report into the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar found the key factor in her death was inadequate assessment and monitoring. It was well before the spike in the number of babies transferred from Portiuncula Hospital to Dublin for therapeutic cooling in 2014.

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