Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, it is my duty, with everybody else, to sympathise following the latest personal tragedy involving the death of a baby at Cavan General Hospital yesterday evening. I sympathise with the parents of the dead baby. This is the fourth baby to die at Cavan General Hospital in the past few years and clearly it is traumatic. The HSE is investigating the background and cause of this death and I do not wish to comment further until the facts about what happened are known.

HIQA's report on Portlaoise hospital has implications for maternity services throughout the country. With regard to Cavan General Hospital, I understand that, following the death of the third baby in May 2014, the then Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, wrote to HIQA on 14 May, requesting it to prioritise the monitoring of the maternity unit at Cavan General Hospital against the national standards to ensure safer and better health care, as part of the overall response to the Chief Medical Officer's report on maternity services in Portlaoise. HIQA subsequently sought a detailed report on the three cases involved and it was provided by the HSE.

In recognition of the wider implications of the national issues in maternity services highlighted in the Chief Medical Officer's report and as reflected in the terms of reference for the investigation at Portlaoise hospital, HIQA has started a focused programme of monitoring of compliance against the national standards to ensure safer and better health care across maternity services nationally. The programme includes the maternity services provided at Cavan General Hospital. That work has started and will be completed by the end of the year. Today representatives of HIQA are attending the Joint Committee on Health and Children, where I am sure this matter will be discussed in further detail by the representatives.

Because of his concerns about maternity services, the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, who is in Portlaoise General Hospital today to meet the bereaved parents of the babies who lost their lives and staff has decided to establish a national women's and infants' health programme to address and improve maternity services across the country. The programme will provide for a cross-sectoral framework for governance, integration and leadership to drive reform and standardise health care services across the 19 maternity units in the country.

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