Oireachtas health committee must hear from HSE on Portiuncula maternity services, says Opposition

Irish Times

18-05-2025

The
Oireachtas
health committee will need to examine and hear from
Health Service Executive
officials about maternity services at
Portiuncula University Hospital
in
Co Galway
, Opposition TDs have said.
The Irish Times revealed last week that a further external review into maternity care at the Ballinasloe hospital has begun following the death of a baby in recent weeks. It is the 10th review to take place into the care given to women and babies at the hospital.
The new Oireachtas health committee will meet for the first time on Wednesday.
Sinn Féin
's health spokesperson
David Cullinane
said it is 'important that all of the reviews are completed and that maternity services are safe at Portiuncula'.
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'This is an important issue of patient safety, and the Oireachtas health committee will need to examine it.'
Labour
's health spokesperson
Marie Sherlock
said the committee 'needs to hear from the HSE as to the status of those reviews'.
'Questions need to be asked now about what exactly is going on here,' she said.
'The delay in the reporting of the reviews and the addition of yet another review could certainly prompt a crisis of confidence in services at Portiuncula, which we don't want to see happen,' she said.
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Death of baby at Portiuncula Hospital leads to new review
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Ms Sherlock said she was 'really taken aback' when she heard 'yet another review' had to be initiated.
'Ultimately, confidence in our maternity services right across the country depends on people being updated as to what's happening when there have been successive issues in one particular maternity unit.'
Nine external reviews were announced in January, after six babies delivered in 2024 and one in 2025 had hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) – a reduction in the supply of blood or oxygen to a baby's brain before, during or after birth. Six of these babies were referred for neonatal therapeutic hypothermia known as neonatal cooling. Two stillbirths occurred at the hospital in 2023, the circumstances of which are also being reviewed externally.
An external management team remains in place at the hospital to oversee all elements of maternity and neonatal care.
Stephen McMahon, chairman of the
Irish Patients Association
, a patient advocacy group, said that, with 10 reviews ongoing at the hospital, the matter needs to be 'independently investigated up to and beyond the board of the HSE'.
Mr McMahon said the association would like to know if there have been any formal interim reports or updates on the process.
A spokesperson for Minister for Health
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill
said she is 'very aware of the very sad death of a baby who was recently born at Portiuncula University Hospital and that an external review has commenced'.
'She extends her deepest condolences to the family at this devastating time,' the spokesperson said.
The Minister understands a number of other external reviews ongoing at the hospital are expected to be completed 'soon', the spokesperson said, adding that these reports will be shared with the families and other stakeholders, including the Minister, once complete.