Written answers

Tuesday, 24 May 2022

Photo of Holly CairnsHolly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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604. To ask the Minister for Health his response to the high perinatal mortality rates among ethnic African mothers or expectant mothers living in Ireland as recorded in the perinatal statistics report 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25841/22]

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As the national women and infants health programme leads on the management, organisation and delivery of maternity, gynaecological and neonatal services, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

Photo of Holly CairnsHolly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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605. To ask the Minister for Health if a group has been established by his office or any other institution under the aegis of his Department or the HSE for the purpose of carrying out investigations into maternal deaths; the rationale for same; the reason that such investigations are not conducted as a matter of course by HIQA; the budget allocated for this group; the source from which it is allocated; the way that the group is constituted; the membership and governance structures of the group; to whom the group reports; if the establishment of the group has been subject to approval by the Houses of the Oireachtas or the Cabinet; and when the reports and findings of the group will be made public. [25842/22]

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Serious adverse events in maternity care have a devastating impact on the families concerned. It is vital that our health services take steps to ensure serious adverse events in maternity care are appropriately reviewed and responded to at a national level.

The HSE’s Incident Management Framework was launched in 2018 and updated in 2020. The HSE’s Incident Management Framework is applied to the management of individual incidents and is the mechanism for incident investigations in the HSE, including maternal deaths. In line with the HSE’s Incident Management Framework reports relating to service user incidents are personal to the service user and their relevant person(s) and as such are not generally published.

In addition to these processes, the HSE Obstetric Event Support Team (OEST) is a new initiative which was established in 2022 to establish a team within the HSE’s National Women and Infant Health Programme (NWIHP) to provide objective oversight over a specified list of obstetric clinical incidents occurring within Maternity Networks. The OEST has an initial staffing requirement of 4 Whole-time Equivalents (WTEs) including a Clinical Director, Midwife and case managers. Funding of €540,000 was provided to support the establishment and expansion of the OEST from Budget 2022 through the Estimates process.

The aim of the OEST is to support the networks as they respond to the events in terms of overseeing and advising on appointment of the review panel, family engagement, conduct of the review, finalisation of the review report and follow up. In addition to assisting the health services in responding to severe maternity related incidents and in the provision of appropriate supports for patients and families, the OEST aims to ensure appropriate expert level support is available nationally by enabling learning from adverse maternity incidents to be actioned at a national level and by promoting engagement with relevant stakeholders across the maternity network. It is anticipated that this will lead to safer and improved high-quality of care for patients and families.

In relation to the Deputy’s query regarding Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA). HIQA has developed the “National Standards for Safer Better Maternity Services”. HIQA have an associated monitoring programme and by their continued monitoring of services, HIQA acts to drive compliance with National Standards and promote quality improvement and shared learning.

Photo of Holly CairnsHolly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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606. To ask the Minister for Health his views on the disproportionate representation of women of colour among maternal deaths deemed to be a result of medical misadventure in the period 2008-2022, following the recent death of a person (details supplied) in the care of maternity services at a hospital; if there are existing or planned initiatives to investigate and improve care for women of colour in maternity care services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25843/22]

Photo of Stephen DonnellyStephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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As the National Women and Infants Health Programme leads on the management, organisation and delivery of maternity, gynaecological and neonatal services, I have asked the Health Service Executive to respond to the Deputy directly, as soon as possible.

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