Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for arriving late and delaying proceedings. Unfortunately, the Minister, Deputy Harris, cannot be here. I thank Deputy Smyth for raising this matter and giving me the opportunity to update the House on the position on foetal anomaly scanning at Cavan General Hospital. The Minister, Deputy Harris, is advised that while the provision of routine foetal anomaly scanning for all pregnant women has been a key target for Cavan General Hospital, despite every effort having been made the hospital has not been successful, to date, in recruiting the necessary specialists required to provide a routine 20-week anomaly scanning service. However, the Minister is advised that those maternity hospitals and units currently providing anomaly scans will accept referrals from other maternity units, if requested. This occurs where the medical team in the referring maternity unit considers that an anomaly scan is clinically indicated.

The Minister, Deputy Harris, accepts that the provision of anomaly scanning is not uniform throughout the country but we are working to address this. The national maternity strategy is very clear that all women must have equal access to standardised ultrasound services. The strategy will be implemented on a phased basis over the coming years and this work will be led by the HSE national women and infants health programme. The programme was recently established, and the Minister anticipates it will drive improvements in maternity service delivery. On behalf of the Minister, I am pleased to confirm a programme director was seconded into position on 3 January. A clinical director has recently been appointed and will take up position on 1 March.

The Minister has been assured the issue of anomaly scanning is a priority for the programme. As a first step, clinical guidance on routine detailed scans at 20 weeks will be developed. In the meantime, the programme will continue to work with the hospital groups to assist in increasing access to anomaly scans for those units with limited availability. Of course, one of the current challenges to increase access to anomaly scans is the recruitment of ultrasonographers. In this context, it is expected the establishment of maternity networks across hospital groups will assist in the development of a sustainable service model that ensures that all women in each hospital group can access anomaly scans.

The maternity strategy recognises that smaller maternity services cannot, and should not, operate in isolation as stand-alone entities. Those units cannot sustain the breadth and depth of clinical services that the populations they serve require without formal links to larger units. Accordingly, maternity networks are being established across hospital groups. The Deputy can be assured the Government is fully committed to the progressive development of our maternity services. Last year saw the publication of Ireland's first ever national maternity strategy as well as the HSE's national standards for bereavement care following pregnancy loss and perinatal death and HIQA's national standards for safer better maternity services. In addition, each of our 19 maternity units now publishes a maternity patient safety statement on a monthly basis. I am sure the House will agree these developments represent key building blocks to enable us to provide a consistently safe and high quality maternity service.

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