Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Deputy Catherine Connolly and her colleagues on bringing forward the motion. It might have been an ill-judgment of the Minister to leave before some of the contributions were made. I say this with no disrespect to the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, and I acknowledge her presence.

The Covid-19 situation and all the restrictions that came into being gave rise to angst and anger because of the disruption caused to maternity services. Nobody is to blame for Covid-19. One of the things we must learn from the pandemic is that maternity services were affected in a way that meant partners were excluded from what were special occasions in the lives of families. Those were sometimes also traumatic and sorrowful occasions, with high stress experienced by the mother and the partner.

We are now opening the country. As other speakers have said, however, there seems to be a reluctance on behalf of the management of hospitals across the country to do the same. It is very hard to justify it being possible for people to go for a drink, into a hotel and to do all of these types of things, yet partners, who are more than likely living together, cannot be together for these special, and sometimes sad, occasions that occur during maternity.

The biggest problem I find with this situation is that the Department of Health has divorced itself from all responsibility in respect of hospital management. Hospital management in different areas has operated under rules. This has again created confusion and a question about who is in charge. Therefore, rather than just talking about this matter, it is important that the Minister issues a directive to the management of hospitals concerning how to proceed.

The other issue I want to raise is the national maternity strategy. I have often listened to people talking about strategies since I was elected to this House. A few Deputies said that the strategy was written in a given year. The easiest thing is probably to write a strategy, but the crucial aspect should be implementing it. However, that is not happening. There was a case in my constituency of a couple that had a traumatic experience in the form of a miscarriage, which was their second miscarriage. The problem faced by that couple was that when an issue arose over a weekend they were first directed to the emergency services, and then subsequently sent to maternity services. No CT scan services were available at the weekends.

A reply I received from the HSE is worrying, because it referred to a concentration on normal services and times of operation. CT services would be available for emergencies, but I do not believe we can have a service that is ad hoc from Friday evening until Monday morning. Whether it is maternity services or any other medical service, we need a more flexible approach in respect of people being available to carry out scans. That will cost money, but we are talking about having people available to ensure that we treat expectant mothers, the mothers of children and children themselves with the highest of respect and with the requisite services.

Another issue that came up during my conversation with this couple was that of training for staff when a miscarriage is suffered. I refer to how they deal with that situation and how they deal with the patient and the partner. It must be handled with compassion, and that is how many people act. However, in a situation where staff are overrun with work, sometimes a little of the required compassion cannot be given. We must ensure, therefore, that the requisite resources are provided and that every member of staff is trained in how to deal with a patient who suffers such a trauma, and including everyone in that training, even down to the person bringing in a cup of tea.

We have lost sight of many of the simple things because we get so involved in and buried within strategies. An example in that regard is antigen testing. Why can we not use that method in the maternity hospitals to allow partners to attend? That should not be done in just one hospital or another, but nationally. Let us have a national drive using this approach and ensure everybody is singing from the same hymn sheet.

We have heard from Deputies regarding their own experiences in this area. It has been a long time since my wife last gave birth, and that baby is now 35 years old, but it was a special time in our lives. It is a special time in the lives of those lucky enough to be in that position. We should, therefore, ensure that the women and newborn children of this country are treated properly. We do not need just a written strategy, but one that is implemented and that will continue to be implemented in a transparent way. Returning to the very start of when we began talking about maternity services, we have heard much talk about strategies, but what we must do is decide what we are going to do with the national maternity hospital in Dublin. We must get that sorted out and then move on, get the maternity services in place and increase the infrastructure in all the hospitals where it is needed.

We cannot have our hospital staff working in archaic buildings where they cannot provide a proper health service and then blame them for the outcome. If the experience of Covid-19 has shown us one thing, it is that our HSE workers are the best in the world and we must ensure that we recognise that fact. Recognising it is one thing, but, equally, we must also ensure that we continue to support those workers with the necessary infrastructure and resources to allow them to deliver excellent services throughout the health service, and particularly in the area of the maternity services.

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