Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The first thing we should acknowledge is that the reason we have travelled so far in Portlaoise hospital is the courage of a number of women who were courageous enough to come forward with their personal stories about the traumatic effects of losing a baby. That is the reason the advances and improvements have been made in the first place.

The Minister for Health and the Department are committed to securing and developing the role of Portlaoise hospital within the Dublin midlands hospital group. This is an issue of great concern for everybody. The extent of progress made in patient safety measures in maternity services in Portlaoise hospital demonstrates the commitment of the staff and leadership team at the hospital, as well as of the team at hospital group level. This morning I listened to the chairperson of the group speak about the commitment and work rate of the staff in Portlaoise hospital. The services at the hospital are reporting monthly maternity patient safety statements and participating in national data collections, including the Irish maternity indicator system. This has led to confirmation by HIQA that the hospital's services are performing in line with nationally reported rates.

Since 2012 there has been an 18% increase in staffing levels across maternity, paediatric medicine and emergency services in Portlaoise hospital. Funding increased by 15% between 2012 and 2016 and significant patient safety improvements are evident regarding complaints management, incident reporting and implementation of key national clinical effectiveness committee patient safety guidelines. The reported data from Portlaoise hospital indicate that the maternity services are performing in line with nationally reported rates.

There are now six funded obstetrics and gynaecological posts, four of which are joint appointments with the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital. Twenty additional midwives were approved for the group in accordance with the recommendations of Birthrate Plus and are in place. Portlaoise hospital is funded to employ 70 midwives and an additional 16 basic midwifery posts and two additional midwifery management posts have been put in place since 2014. A clinical network for obstetrics has been established for the group led by the Coombe hospital and includes Portlaoise hospital. A clinical lead for the integration of obstetrics services was appointed in 2015. The memorandum of understanding between the Coombe and Portlaoise hospitals is in operation in five phases.

The Minister for Health welcomed the report yesterday by HIQA which reviewed progress at the Midland Regional Hospital in implementing the recommendations made by HIQA in 2015.

The point made this morning by the chairperson was that this is an important entity and that it is important we get this right and do not make knee-jerk decisions that would not be in the long-term interests of the patients, mothers-to-be or the staff. A serious improvement has been made, with more to follow.

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