John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Deputy Kelleher on tabling the motion and giving us an opportunity to debate the issues, particularly with regard to the maternity services in Portlaoise. It is important at the outset to extend our sincerest sympathy to the families who lost children in such terrible circumstances. When we all watched the "Prime Time" investigation into the deaths of four babies over a six year period at the Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise, we were horrified. That programme highlighted, in no small way, the problems that beset the hospital in Portlaoise. It highlighted the need for change, decisive action, extra staff and also the need to deal with the issues that had arisen over a number of years. It pointed out very clearly that the hospital and the HSE had failed to implement recommendations arising from previous investigations which may have saved the babies' lives.

The programme also stated that neither the hospital nor the HSE informed the bereaved families that an investigation had taken place in their case or that a report had been produced until many years later.

One mother only found out about the investigation and report five years after her baby had died. In a statement, the HSE and the hospital have apologised and accept responsibility for what happened. They have promised to act on certain recommendations, particularly the recommendations HIQA proposed to deal with the problems at the hospital at Portlaoise.

Last week we heard a compelling account from Mark and Róisín Molloy, parents of Mark, who died on 24 January 2012, of the problems they faced over a long period of time in trying to get answers or any type of information on what happened to their child. They now know, at this very late stage, of the situation at the time. However, they were put through the hoops at a very difficult time. This is a family that was grieving and had to endure the sad loss of a child. Every roadblock possible was put in their way preventing them from getting information on the reasons their child had died. Mark and Róisín Molloy had a litany of correspondence and meetings during which they tried to get the full story but always found it very difficult and did not find the answers they wanted.

I compliment the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, on attending the meeting in Portlaoise. He listened to the families in a room of 120 people. He must have been very concerned over the stories of the difficulties the families had faced. I am sure the Minister will act on what he has heard to ensure such a situation does not recur. It is important that he would do that. I am sure the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, and he will ensure that the difficulties these families faced in the past will not be repeated.

It is important to implement HIQA's recommendations as quickly as possible. It produced a shocking report, which exposes the chronically weak levels of oversight and inaction by the HSE nationally, regionally and locally. It failed to deliver safe clinical services and put patients' lives at risk. What is worse is that management was well aware of the risks posed by these unsafe practices but failed to take any decisive action to rectify the situation. HSE bosses allowed Portlaoise hospital to continue to operate on a 24/7 basis despite a series of safety and quality of care issues which were never acted upon. They also failed to resource the hospital sufficiently and to ensure that the governance arrangements in place could safely deliver services to patients.

The Government and the HSE in many ways ignored alarm bells about the safety risks which were being highlighted at the hospital and patients suffered as a result. It is disgraceful that the HSE failed in its duty to exercise any meaningful oversight of services despite repeated warnings. Patients across the midlands have every right to feel angry and concerned at the findings in the HIQA report. However, we are where we are and it is now important that the HIQA report be acted on as quickly as possible. The Minister should work in conjunction with the hospital in Portlaoise to deal with the problems and risks in order to ensure that adequate staff are in place in future to deal with such issues.

It is important to highlight that expectant women will not find this situation in every hospital. We have some maternity hospitals that are providing an excellent service. It is generally agreed that Wexford maternity hospital is the best and safest place for births in the country. At one stage it was suggested that Wexford maternity hospital would close and that Waterford would become a centre of excellence for the south east. Cross-party political pressure resisted this and we now have a state-of-the-art maternity hospital at Wexford General Hospital. It is one of the safest places for births in the country.

There is considerable talk about reviewing the maternity services and perhaps closing down some of the hospitals. The people of Wexford, Wicklow and the south east region in general are very happy to have a maternity hospital based in Wexford. We have a population of 140,000 with Wicklow not far behind. That hospital is servicing the needs of expectant mothers and families in that area.

It is increasingly clear that our national maternity infrastructure is under strain and needs serious review and investment. We need a proper debate and Deputy Kelleher's motion tonight has started the debate. It is important that this debate continues on whether the existing infrastructure is sufficient to meet the needs of the country over coming years. This debate needs to include a discussion about what greater role community midwifery can play, the urgent need for greater numbers of consultant obstetricians and what level of investment in the physical infrastructure is actually needed.

Ireland has one of the lowest ratios of obstetricians to patients in the OECD and there is a need for investment in maternity and neonatal services across the country as a matter of urgency. I hope the Minister, Deputy Varadkar, in October's budget will have money made available to ensure that the problems in Portlaoise and Galway are never repeated. Adequate money needs to be made available to provide the services.

The provision of accessible, safe and high-quality obstetrician-led maternity services to all mothers and babies, regardless of where they live must be a core objective of public health policy. We need to bear that in mind with the budget in October. Rather than downgrade services we should focus on attracting the necessary number of qualified consultant obstetricians to facilitate an accessible, safe, high-quality maternity service to all existing maternity centres nationally and to promote obstetrics as a career option among our medical professionals in order to achieve this and in order to overcome the challenges that our obligations under the working time directive present.

This is the first of many debates on this issue in coming months. It is important to make the funds and staff available to ensure we do not have a repeat of what happened in Portlaoise. I accept we will always have human error and difficulties in that area.

As the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, is on duty, the Ceann Comhairle might allow me a minute to say that the Waterford child and adolescent mental health services have suspended taking new referrals for the foreseeable future. This will seriously affect the services in the south east generally, including in my county. The Minister of State might not be aware of this because there was only a news flash this evening about it. It seems that the HSE has failed or refused to appoint a permanent psychiatric consultant to deal with such issues. When the Minister of State arrives in her office tomorrow she might check out the situation and have the problem dealt with or otherwise the young people in the south east will suffer greatly because of a lack of service.

See this speech in context