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Irish Times
05-08-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
HSE to gather more detailed abortion data from Irish hospitals
The age, number of previous pregnancies, form of contraception and gestation of women who access abortion services in Irish hospitals is to be collected by the Health Service Executive for the first time. The National Women and Infants Health Programme (NWIHP) is running a pilot system designed to collect more information about termination-of-pregnancy health services in Irish maternity hospitals. Though the data system is only running in a number of maternity units, there are plans within the HSE to make it national. While it will mainly collect information about abortions carried out in hospital settings rather than from pills provided by a GP, the HSE will also start collecting details of women who present to hospital after taking abortion pills at home or accessing a termination abroad. READ MORE Until now, the only national data collected about abortion each year was the total number of terminations carried out under each section of the law, the month that it was carried out and the county or country of residence of the woman accessing the health service. This data was required to be reported to the Minister for Health under legislation introduced in 2018, following the repeal of the Eighth Amendment. The HSE said that 'until recently, there was no formal or systematic national mechanism for monitoring and evaluating [termination of pregnancy] services'. It said the NWIHP has developed 'a national electronic data collection system'. The system is focusing on collecting data from hospital-based abortion services, which make up a minority of terminations carried out in Ireland every year. The most recent data available from the Department of Health said that the number of women who had abortions in Ireland rose to 10,852 last year. The overwhelming majority, 10,711, were early pregnancy terminations, where a woman takes two types of medicines prescribed by a GP up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. The HSE said that its new data system will collect more detail about abortions provided in hospital settings. It will include the number of abortions carried out in hospitals and the section of the law under which each abortion was carried out. This will include early pregnancy abortion, a termination in a case where there is a risk to a woman's life or health, a termination carried out in instances where there is a risk to the woman's life or health in an emergency, or following the diagnosis of a condition likely to lead to death of a foetus. The HSE will collect data on whether a hospital-based abortion was medical, surgical or surgical under general anaesthetic, as well as how far along in the pregnancy the woman was at the time of the abortion. Post-abortion complications and the care provided to women in those instances will also be collected for the first time, as will any presentations to hospital of women following an early medical abortion pill or a termination carried out abroad. The HSE said that 'some maternal characteristics' will also be included in data collected, including 'age, previous pregnancies and contraception use'. The HSE said it was 'important to note that the system does not collect any patient-identifiable information and does not capture the personal reasons or circumstances behind an individual's decision to end a pregnancy.' Under Irish law, there is no requirement for a woman to disclose her reason for choosing an abortion up to 12 weeks - the gestational limit under which the vast majority of abortions happen in Ireland.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
New HSE endometriosis centre opens in Cork, Ireland
Ireland's Health Service Executive (HSE) has announced the opening of the Supra-Regional Endometriosis Centre, a development aimed at enhancing care for women with advanced endometriosis. The centre, opened by Ireland Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, is situated at the Lee Clinic and is managed by Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH). It has begun welcoming patients from across Ireland. CUMH consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist and clinical director Dr Mairead O'Riordan said: 'Thank you to the government for its ongoing commitment to women's health, the launch of the centre is a significant step toward improving access to specialised healthcare and addressing the long-standing gaps in endometriosis care.' Since 2021, the Irish Government has allocated over €5m ($5.49m) to fund staffing for endometriosis services, which includes €2.17m to expand services during this year. In addition, €1.7m has been invested specifically in endometriosis services in Cork since 2022. The new Endometriosis Centre at CUMH is focused on providing specialist care to women throughout the region, with a multidisciplinary team working collaboratively to offer comprehensive, personalised support to each patient. Its establishment is a collaborative effort between the HSE and the HSE National Women and Infants Health Programme (NWIHP) and is designed to align with the National Endometriosis Framework. This framework, a first for Ireland, sets out a clear clinical care pathway for women with endometriosis. The centre in Cork, along with another supra-regional clinic at Tallaght University Hospital, will be supported by the regional endometriosis hub services network. MacNeill said: 'This facility in Cork will help deliver a new model of care, one that meets the complex needs of women with endometriosis while providing timely, equitable access to essential services for women living with this condition.' Last month, the HSE announced the launch of an Integrated Healthcare Hub in Waterford for outpatient services. "New HSE endometriosis centre opens in Cork, Ireland" was originally created and published by Hospital Management, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
