Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this case and for affording me the opportunity to offer my sincerest condolences to the family involved. The Deputy will appreciate that I have a no role in individual cases and do not have access to individual patient files or personal information.

I am informed that the Health Service Executive, HSE, and the Coombe hospital have been in contact with this family on an ongoing basis for several years and have apologised to them for the death of their child 23 years ago. In 2012, the Coombe hospital initiated a systems review to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of an infant in 1992. This review, undertaken in line with the HSE's incident management policy and guidelines, concluded that there were deficiencies in care which contributed to the child’s death. It is important we learn from these adverse incidents as the single most important obligation for any health service is patient safety and improving the quality of care. That is why the Government is committed to improving the quality and safety of maternity services. A national women’s and infant health programme will be established by the HSE to drive improvement and standardise care across all 19 maternity units. The maternity strategy under development will provide the policy to direct and underpin the work of the programme.

There was also an additional €2 million provided to the HSE in 2015 to improve maternity services further and this funding provided for the appointment of additional staff, including additional obstetricians, midwives and other front-line staff. We will build on these improvements through the provision of further additional resources for maternity services in 2016, the detail of which will be set out in the HSE's national service plan.

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