Dáil debates

Wednesday, 3 May 2017

Maternity Services: Motion [Private Members]

 

6:25 pm

Photo of Louise O'ReillyLouise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Dáil Éireann:notes:

— that since 2011, maternity services in Ireland have been marked with investigations and, in some cases, alleged cover ups of maternal and child mortality or injury in Portiuncula as well as University Hospital Galway, Portlaoise, Cavan, and Drogheda;

— that Ireland has the lowest number of consultant obstetricians per 100,000 women in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and a consultant obstetrician in Ireland is responsible for 597 births per annum, compared to 268 in Scotland;

— that the three Dublin maternity hospitals are operating at a 17 per cent deficit in the number of midwifery staff needed to run the services;

— that most of the 19 maternity units do not offer foetal anomaly screening, as prenatal ultrasound assessments by qualified sonographers and foetal medicine specialists are not available outside larger units;

— that, despite the enactment of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, there is a dearth of perinatal psychiatrists and other specialists;

— the serious inequalities and absence of resources which exist within the Health Service Executive (HSE) to provide services to children with life-limiting and complex medical needs, and to those under palliative care; and

— that such shortcomings have directly led to tragic incidents involving mothers and children;acknowledges and supports the findings of:— the National Maternity Strategy, Palliative Care for Children with Life-limiting Conditions in Ireland – A National Policy by the Department of Health, the HSE National Standards for Bereavement Care following Pregnancy Loss and Perinatal Death, and the Report on End of Life and Palliative Care in Ireland by the Joint Committee on Health and Children in 2014; and

— the National Standards for Safer Better Maternity Services Report by the Health Information and Quality Authority submitted to the Minister for Health;further acknowledges:— that the Programme for a Partnership Government states it will implement the National Maternity Strategy and ‘invest in end of life care, including the provision of hospice and “end of life care” during the perinatal period, infancy, childhood and adulthood’;

— the need for continuity of care for women and parents during pregnancy, at the point of delivery and after birth, inclusive of where children have life-limiting conditions;

— the need to support bereaved parents in their transition out of hospital, with appropriate services and the availability of frontline bereavement counselling;

— that the above is best delivered by medical teams basing their decisions on best medical practice and not in any way beholden to any religious ethos; and

— the plans to move the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street to new, modern facilities at St. Vincent’s Hospital campus; andcalls on the Government to:— honour commitments in the Programme for a Partnership Government in respect of funding and implementing the National Maternity Strategy;

— ensure that the new National Maternity Hospital is built on the St. Vincent’s Hospital campus as quickly as possible, remains entirely within public ownership and has legally guaranteed independence from all non-medical influence in its clinical operations within the laws of the State;

— ensure swift approval, dissemination and implementation of the National Maternity Standards for Safer Better Maternity Services;

— ensure all maternity hospitals have access to foetal anomaly screening, with the requisite staff and equipment;

— work with nursing and medical unions in the recruitment and retention of medical staff, so that all maternity hospitals meet the Birthrate Plus standard for midwifery staffing, as well as international standards for consultant obstetricians and gynaecologists;

— establish an independent patient advocacy service; and

— implement the recommendations of the Report on End of Life and Palliative Care in Ireland by the Joint Committee on Health and Children in 2014, prioritising those parts relating to care for children with life-limiting conditions."

On behalf of Sinn Féin, I welcome the women watching this debate. We should make no mistake about it as they are watching it and there has been a huge amount of discussion about maternity services, which is fantastic, as I have been raising the maternity services issue consistently in this Chamber.

The recent controversy over the ownership and governance of the National Maternity Hospital has thrust the spotlight on to maternity services but the provision of maternity care for the women of this country is not a priority for this Government. It is a priority for those people watching us and they are very interested in what happens in here because it directly affects the availability of the care they can access. The Government's amendment is yet another exercise in patting itself on the back, a big "well done" for all the achievements it is in the process of actioning. These are what it is just about to do any minute now. It is a "well done" for publishing a strategy; well done indeed but the words are meaningless to those women who will wait years for a gynaecology appointment or the women who will today, next week and for the foreseeable future be denied a basic 20-week anomaly scan.

The 20-week anomaly scan is a screening test but in six of the nine maternity facilities in this State, these scans cannot be accessed as a matter of course. One can only get them when clinically indicated. If a woman has no screening, there is no way of determining what can be clinically indicated. The Minister knows this, as do his officials and the Health Service Executive, HSE. When we ask a question about those scans, we are told they are offered when clinically indicated and only at six sites. In case the Minister is wondering why we need anomaly scans, I remind him of the case of Ms Jazmine Sands, a young woman whose baby, Isabella, was born in Kerry and rushed to Dublin. This little baby was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome on 23 May 2016 and 12.01 p.m., weighing 5 lbs 1oz. She was immediately rushed to the children's hospital at Crumlin, dying there a short time later. Her mam had to endure an horrific journey after a caesarean section from Kerry to Dublin. There was no way her baby would have survived and there was nothing, despite their best efforts, that the doctors and nurses could have done. However, if the woman had access to a 20-week anomaly scan, the problem with her baby's heart would have been picked up and she would have had the opportunity to make arrangements to bring her family to Dublin. She would not have left her family in Kerry had she known the only choice she could make was to have a bit of time with her baby and cherish it. It should be a very basic right of a pregnant woman to access a 20-week anomaly scan and it is considered a very basic entitlement in most developed countries.

Maternity services have been neglected and the truth is women and babies are suffering on a daily basis because of this. The motion calls on the Government to do not much more than implement its own policies and commitments but all we get are fine words without commitments, dates or a timeframe. There is nothing concrete to give women any hope. It is another strategy to add to the Government's collection but there is no specified action or date for when women can have access to this routine scan. I have asked the Minister and the Taoiseach about this countless times but they have not been able to give a date by which we could say to women that they will able to access this very basic scan.

I also raise the issue of the new maternity hospital, as everybody is talking about it. This motion seeks to ensure it will be kept in State ownership and the people providing the service will have the ability to deliver those services free of any religious interference. The Bishop of Elphin was very clear, as the Minister is aware, in saying that where the church owns the land, canon law prevails. That cannot be allowed to happen but we must have the new maternity hospital. A young woman in my family gave birth at Holles Street about a year and a half ago to a beautiful baby boy but she was very sick afterwards and had to go to intensive care. She could not have her baby with her because the woman in the bed beside her was grieving the loss of her baby. That is why we need this hospital. Sinn Féin supports the building of our maternity hospital but we cannot have a position where the hospital would be controlled by anybody other than this State.

That must be legally guaranteed.

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