Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and thank Deputy Kelleher for putting the motion to the House during Private Members' time tonight. Deputy Twomey is right. It is not all about resources. The Portlaoise case shows that human decency and compassion was lacking at one level and accountability was lacking at another level. Tonight we stand here to remember the families and to pay tribute to them for their bravery and courage. It is extraordinary that we are still here despite the fact that we are spending billions on our health service. At that most difficult time of when a parent loses a child, they should be treated with compassion by the hospital, Health Service Executive and staff. Thankfully, in the majority of cases, it happens, but on the occasion it does not happen, it is unacceptable and its legacy is to be found in the report by HIQA.

This is a tome of a report and it is shameful. It is regrettable that we speak about this tonight, because if one was to look at the report, and I challenge Deputy Fitzmaurice who preaches about good and new politics, to look at the report, on page 57, which states: "A good safety culture is certainly an important foundation of a safe organisation and is founded on the individual attitudes and values of everyone in the organisation."

However, a strong safety culture did not exist in Portlaoise. This is not necessarily about resources, it is about management, accountability and the delivery of a service by us, as people. It is clear that at times this was not available or was not being operated by the persons involved.

Equally, I am pleased that the Joint Committee on Health and Children met officials from HIQA and the HSE and, more important, provided an opportunity for the strong and courageous families to come in, speak and engage with the committee, of which I am privileged to be a member. If we listen to what HIQA said to the committee and its independent view on what happened and if we explore the recommendations made by the authority, then we will see that what occurred should never be repeated.

The independent report was commissioned in the interests of what our health system should be about: the patients and their families, past, present and future. Their concerns and the concerns of the families as well as the safety of the patients must be paramount. We must ensure that risks are minimised and compassion guaranteed when families are faced with the most difficult of circumstances. If one were to listen to the account of HIQA one would suggest that patient safety was not treated as a priority. That is a significant concern. It must not simply be a concern, we must ensure it is a priority.

The HIQA report raised number of fundamental issues around governance, accountability, hospital standards, resources and how we allocate money. I am pleased that the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, and the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, have been unequivocal in saying that the recommendations must be implemented in full. If we are to get anything out of this report, it should be to have the eight recommendations implemented to enable us to monitor our health system in a clear and cogent way. Equally, we must put in place a mechanism to monitor the implementation of recommendations in the HIQA investigation reports.

Prior to the investigation by HIQA and the publication of its report the previous Minister put in place a series of reforms, along with the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, to ensure that we would never be back here again. These included putting new management in place. As Deputy Twomey said, the hospital in Portlaoise is part of the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. Clinical governance is to be addressed by a memorandum of understanding between the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital and the HSE to provide the first managed clinical maternity network within the Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. The Government is committed to securing and further developing the role of Midland Hospital, Portlaoise, something that was ignored in the past even though the constituency had a former Minister for Health, Taoiseach and Minister for Finance.

This is about people. It is about ensuring that we learn from the past and put in place a maternity service that is going to have women and the babies that are born at the centre of what we do. If we do anything in terms of improving governance, integration and leadership, we will see reform and a standardisation of care across all maternity hospitals. That is why we owe a debt of gratitude to the families, a debt that must be repaid by implementing in full the recommendations. The focus must be about putting things right such that we can ensure patient safety will never be compromised and is a priority.

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