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

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann:” and substitute the following:

“recognises:

— the need for Ireland’s maternity services to be as safe as possible for women and babies, including the need for women to be listened to and respected;

— the hard work, skill and dedication of all staff across Ireland who provide maternity services;

— the growing crisis in maternity care for reasons including:

— outdated and inadequate hospitals;— limited diagnostics;

— poor staffing ratios;

— insufficient parental supports;

— wide geographic variations; and

— lack of community-based options for mothers;— the deep concern these pressures are resulting in for current and expectant mothers and fathers; and

— the increased burn-out and stress for clinicians, together with a retention and recruitment crisis and chronic staff shortages;

notes:

— the publication of the National Maternity Strategy 2016-2026, Palliative Care for Children with Life-Limiting Conditions in Ireland – A National Policy by the Department of Health, the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) National Standards for Bereavement Care following Pregnancy Loss and Perinatal Death, and the 2014 Report on End-of-Life and Palliative Care in Ireland by the Joint Committee on Health and Children;

— the submission of the National Standards for Safer Better Maternity Services by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) to the Minister for Health;

— that the 2008 KPMG Independent Review of Maternity and Gynaecology Services in the Greater Dublin Area identified the need for maternity services to be co-located with adult acute services;

— the repeated announcements from 2013 onwards, including in the Capital Plan 2016-

2021 and the National Maternity Strategy 2016-2026, that Dublin’s three maternity hospitals and Limerick’s would be relocated, with:

— the National Maternity Hospital to St. Vincent’s University Hospital ownership and has legally guaranteed independence from all non-medical influence in its clinical operations within the laws of the State;

— funding and a taskforce to implement the National Maternity Strategy 2016-2026, including choice around birth, types of antenatal care, access to anomaly scanning, breastfeeding, counselling services, public health, domestic violence supports and appropriate staffing levels;

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

— an active clinical programme for the development and review of clinical guidelines for maternity services;

— expansion of the new-born screening programme and guarantee that every child born in this State has the right to be screened at birth for any disease for which there is a viable treatment;

— an immediate statement of maternity services available at all sites, including prenatal screening, access to foetal medicine, counselling, genetic testing and laboratories being used;

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

— investment in community-based pathways to ensure choice for mothers;

— indemnity to cover practice nurses who give antenatal care;

— measures to address the chronic staff shortages, including ending pay disparity;

— the Government to 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;

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

— investment in a national foetal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) programme and bereavement care.”—

I thank the Deputies for bringing forward this motion on maternity services in Private Member's time. Our amendment has been submitted in a constructive manner. Its purpose is to make an addition in order to strengthen what is already a very important and well constructed motion. I welcome the women watching this debate. We should make no mistake about it, they are watching it because maternity services constitute an issue that is not just dear to my heart but to that of many men and women who have had to avail of those services.

There has been a great deal of discussion about maternity services and I noticed the little tit for tat going on between the Minister and his constituency colleague when they were pointing fingers at each other. The Minister referred to the number of hospitals not built by Fianna Fáil but the position is the same regarding the number of hospitals not built by the Government in the past eight years. This Government has not built any maternity hospitals.

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