Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim mo bhuíochas leis an Teachta Doherty as ucht an ábhair thábhachtach seo a ardú. The Government is strongly committed to developing and improving services at Letterkenny University Hospital, as is evidenced by the significant level of investment in capital projects in recent years. These developments include a new state-of-the-art blood science laboratory in 2015, a new medical academy and a clinical skills laboratory, both of which opened in 2016. The Deputy will also be aware of the significant investment in the hospital following the flood in 2013. I should also note that further capital investment in the hospital is planned.

I am advised that the obstetric theatre to which the Deputy refers was built in 2000 as part of a four-storey building encompassing day surgery, renal dialysis, medical on-call rooms, a maternity ward and maternity delivery rooms. I have also been advised that the delivery suite was opened in 2007 and has been operational since then, while, as noted by the Deputy, the maternity theatre has never been opened fully and is not currently in use. My understanding is that all emergency caesarean sections are performed in the hospital’s emergency theatre, while elective sections are carried out in the general theatres along with other surgical specialties.

As the House will be aware, in recent years this Government has had a particular focus on the development and improvement of our maternity services. Since January 2016, Ireland’s first national maternity strategy has been published, as well as the HSE's national standards for bereavement care following pregnancy loss and perinatal death and the Health Information and Quality Authority, HIQA, national standards for safer better maternity services. Such initiatives represent essential building blocks to provide a consistently safe and high quality maternity service.

In January 2017, the national women and infants health programme was established in the HSE to lead the management, organisation and delivery of maternity, gynaecology and neonatal services, strengthening such services by bringing together work that is currently undertaken across primary, community and acute care. Last October, the programme published a detailed implementation plan for the phased implementation of the strategy. In that regard, additional development funding of €4.55 million will be provided to the programme in 2018 to implement the strategy and improve waiting times for gynaecology services.

Maternity networks are currently being rolled out across hospitals groups. In that context, and in view of the issue raised by the Deputy on the disused maternity theatre at Letterkenny University Hospital, I will ask the national women and infants health programme to engage further with the Saolta University Health Care Group in order to identify its resource requirements for maternity services in the context of the implementation of the national maternity strategy.

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