Frank Feighan (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his statement on this tragic case involving Christopher and his parents who are, as the Deputy said, broken-hearted. The Minister fully agrees with the need for a fair investigation to take place into the incident that occurred in the National Maternity Hospital in March 2019. He is committed to moving this process forward as expeditiously as possible.

The Department is satisfied that an independent external review is the appropriate mechanism by which to investigate this matter. To ensure that services conduct appropriate reviews of patient safety incidents, in 2017 HIQA and the Mental Health Commission published joint national standards for the conduct of reviews of patient safety incidents. The standards require that, for the most serious incidents, services must commission an external independent review. Furthermore, the HSE's Incident Management Framework 2018, which is based on the standards, sets out the procedure to be followed by a service in conducting a patient safety incident review. The framework sets out that serious incidents, referred to as "category 1 incidents", should be reviewed by a team external to the community healthcare organisation, hospital group or National Ambulance Service directorate.

The Minister believes this review should proceed and be completed as quickly as possible to establish the facts of the case, provide clarity and answers to the couple concerned, identify any patient safety risks associated with the termination services provided by the National Maternity Hospital and other maternity services, and identify any patient safety learning that can be implemented in the National Maternity Hospital and across the wider maternity services. It is the intention of the Minister to meet the family in the coming weeks.

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