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Irish Times
09-07-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Portiuncula review: How can the same issues occur at the same hospital again?
In 2018, a publication, known as the Walker report, highlighted significant issues with maternity services at Portiuncula hospital – particularly around governance, communication, the presence of consultants and training and reliance on locum consultants. Seven years later, the public would be forgiven for wondering if this is Groundhog Day, as another review at the Ballinasloe hospital highlights strikingly familiar concerns. 'Unfortunately, although changes were made following the 2018 review, many of the same scenarios have been identified by this 2024 review process,' a review summary noted. On Wednesday, the Health Service Executive published a summary report of five external reviews into the care provided to women and their babies at the Ballinasloe hospital. READ MORE The reviews were commissioned after five cases of neonatal encephalopathy (NE) requiring therapeutic hypothermia (known as neonatal cooling) were identified in a close time period. NE is an impairment of neurological function. [ Maternity services across Ireland should be reviewed, expert group urges following Portiuncula report Opens in new window ] Adding to this, a further five reviews are under way, while two more reviews are due to begin imminently. In the summary, the review team laid out four common themes of concern: communication, governance, clinical care, leadership and clinical governance and infrastructure. For anyone who consistently follows health news, the terms will be familiar. Time and time again, they are touted as the reason why things go wrong in our health service. But how can the same issues occur at the same hospital again? Steps were taken to improve things. One of the recommendations in the 2018 report was to improve clinical governance. Consequently, the responsibility for maternity services was given to a new clinical director from the hospital group. Wednesday's report notes, however, that while this might have seemed a 'positive move', the position has no executive oversight, no regulatory or budgetary control and their role is 'purely oversight and advisory'. 'There have been a number of changes in recent years to the governance structures of HSE hospitals from health boards to hospital groups to regional groups,' the report said. 'The further the distance between the key decision makers and the clinical coalface, the more likely it is that decisions will be significantly delayed and based more on financial merit than clinical need.' As such, the review team has recommended that clinicians take up leadership roles, and reliance on locum consultants is reduced. The review team also noted the two communication systems in place, which they said should be simplified to make it more efficient and to reduce the 'clinical risks'. Furthermore, the report said there were situations in which staff were unable to contact the consultant on call due to mobile phone coverage problems. 'This is not a safe or satisfactory arrangement and needs to be resolved as a matter of urgency,' the report added. [ What is HIE? The condition affecting newborns has led to reviews in Portiuncula hospital Opens in new window ] The hospital's maternity unit is small, delivering 1,400 babies annually. Consequently, the review team cited difficulty in its ability to provide the 'full range' of maternity and newborn services and to attract permanent staff members. 'It is operationally challenging and there are significant clinical risks in providing maternity services in this way,' it said. In conclusion, it found 'the current situation does not meet the expectations of parents, increases clinical risk, and is no longer sustainable'. That statement is stark, but the more alarming finding is the review team stating the issues arising in the report are ones that 'could plausibly arise in other similar sized maternity units'. As such, the team 'strongly recommends' that there is an opportunity to review the way maternity services are delivered across the State. Such a finding will do little to reassure expectant parents of the safety of the maternity system. If anything, it will leave them with more questions than they had before.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Will we ever know for sure how COVID-19 began? Not without more data from China, WHO says
Scientists still aren't sure how the COVID-19 pandemic – the worst health emergency in a century – began. That was the unsatisfying conclusion from an expert group charged by the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate the pandemic's origins in its final report. Marietjie Venter, the group's chair, said at a press briefing that most scientific data supports the hypothesis that the new coronavirus jumped to humans from animals. That was also the conclusion drawn by the first WHO expert group that investigated the pandemic's origins in 2021, when scientists concluded the virus likely spread from bats to humans, via another intermediary animal. At the time, WHO said a lab leak was 'extremely unlikely'. Related Five years after COVID appeared, mysteries remain. Here's what we know Venter said that after more than three years of work, WHO's expert group was unable to get the necessary data to evaluate whether or not COVID-19 was the result of a lab accident, despite repeated requests for hundreds of genetic sequences and more detailed biosecurity information that were made to the Chinese government. 'Therefore, this hypothesis could not be investigated or excluded,' she said. 'It was deemed to be very speculative, based on political opinions and not backed up by science'. She said that the 27-member group did not reach a consensus; one member resigned earlier this week and three others asked for their names to be removed from the report. Venter said there was no evidence to prove that COVID-19 had been manipulated in a lab, nor was there any indication that the virus had been spreading before December 2019 anywhere outside of China. Related Italy honours COVID-19 victims on remembrance day, five years after pandemic hit 'Until more scientific data becomes available, the origins of how SARS-CoV-2 entered human populations will remain inconclusive,' Venter said, referring to the scientific name for the COVID-19 virus. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was a 'moral imperative' to determine how COVID began, noting that the virus killed at least 20 million people, wiped at least $10 trillion (€8.8 trillion) from the global economy and upended the lives of billions of people. Last year, the AP found that the Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus' origins in the first weeks of the outbreak in 2020 and that WHO itself may have missed early opportunities to investigate how COVID-19 began. Related New CIA assessment claims COVID-19 virus 'probably' came from Chinese laboratory US President Donald Trump has long blamed the emergence of the coronavirus on a laboratory accident in China, while a US intelligence analysis found there was insufficient evidence to prove the theory. Chinese officials have repeatedly dismissed the idea that the pandemic could have started in a lab, saying that the search for its origins should be conducted in other countries. Last September, researchers zeroed in on a short list of animals they think might have spread COVID-19 to humans, including racoon dogs, civet cats, and bamboo rats.
Globe and Mail
27-06-2025
- Health
- Globe and Mail
WHO expert group fails to find a definitive answer for how COVID-19 began
An expert group charged by the World Health Organization to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic started released its final report Friday, reaching an unsatisfying conclusion: Scientists still aren't sure how the worst health emergency in a century began. At a press briefing on Friday, Marietjie Venter, the group's chair, said that most scientific data supports the hypothesis that the new coronavirus jumped to humans from animals. That was also the conclusion drawn by the first WHO expert group that investigated the pandemic's origins in 2021, when scientists concluded the virus likely spread from bats to humans, via another intermediary animal. At the time, WHO said a lab leak was 'extremely unlikely.' Venter said that after more than three years of work, WHO's expert group was unable to get the necessary data to evaluate whether or not COVID-19 was the result of a lab accident, despite repeated requests for hundreds of genetic sequences and more detailed biosecurity information that were made to the Chinese government. 'Therefore, this hypothesis could not be investigated or excluded,' she said. 'It was deemed to be very speculative, based on political opinions and not backed up by science.' She said that the 27-member group did not reach a consensus; one member resigned earlier this week and three others asked for their names to be removed from the report. Five years ago, we predicted how COVID-19 would change our world. Here's what we got right – and wrong Venter said there was no evidence to prove that COVID-19 had been manipulated in a lab, nor was there any indication that the virus had been spreading before December 2019 anywhere outside of China. 'Until more scientific data becomes available, the origins of how SARS-CoV-2 entered human populations will remain inconclusive,' Venter said, referring to the scientific name for the COVID-19 virus. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was a 'moral imperative' to determine how COVID began, noting that the virus killed at least 20 million people, wiped at least US$10 trillion from the global economy and upended the lives of billions. Last year, the AP found that the Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus' origins in the first weeks of the outbreak in 2020 and that WHO itself may have missed early opportunities to investigate how COVID-19 began. U.S. President Donald Trump has long blamed the emergence of the coronavirus on a laboratory accident in China, while a U.S. intelligence analysis found there was insufficient evidence to prove the theory. Chinese officials have repeatedly dismissed the idea that the pandemic could have started in a lab, saying that the search for its origins should be conducted in other countries. Last September, researchers zeroed in on a short list of animals they think might have spread COVID-19 to humans, including racoon dogs, civet cats and bamboo rats.
CBC
27-06-2025
- Health
- CBC
Origins of COVID-19 still unclear according to final report from WHO expert group
An expert group charged by the World Health Organization to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic started released its final report on Friday, reaching an unsatisfying conclusion: Scientists still aren't sure how the worst health emergency in a century began. At a news briefing, Marietjie Venter, the group's chair, said that most scientific data supports the hypothesis that the new coronavirus jumped to humans from animals. That was also the conclusion drawn by the first WHO expert group that investigated the pandemic's origins in 2021, when scientists concluded the virus likely spread from bats to humans, via another intermediary animal. At the time, WHO said a lab leak was "extremely unlikely." Venter said that after more than three years of work, WHO's expert group was unable to get the necessary data to evaluate whether or not COVID-19 was the result of a lab accident, despite repeated requests for hundreds of genetic sequences and more detailed biosecurity information that were made to the Chinese government. "Therefore, this hypothesis could not be investigated or excluded," she said. "It was deemed to be very speculative, based on political opinions and not backed up by science." She said that the 27-member group did not reach a consensus; one member resigned earlier this week and three others asked for their names to be removed from the report. Venter said there was no evidence to prove that COVID-19 had been manipulated in a lab, nor was there any indication that the virus had been spreading before December 2019 anywhere outside of China. "Until more scientific data becomes available, the origins of how SARS-CoV-2 entered human populations will remain inconclusive," Venter said, referring to the scientific name for the COVID-19 virus. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was a "moral imperative" to determine how COVID began, noting that the virus killed at least 20 million people, wiped at least $10 trillion US from the global economy and upended the lives of billions. Last year, The Associated Press found that the Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus's origins in the first weeks of the outbreak in 2020 and that WHO itself may have missed early opportunities to investigate how COVID-19 began. U.S. President Donald Trump has long blamed the emergence of the coronavirus on a laboratory accident in China, while a U.S. intelligence analysis found there was insufficient evidence to prove the theory. Chinese officials have repeatedly dismissed the idea that the pandemic could have started in a lab, saying that the search for its origins should be conducted in other countries.
The Independent
27-06-2025
- Health
- The Independent
WHO expert group fails to find a definitive answer for how COVID-19 began
An expert group charged by the World Health Organization to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic started released its final report Friday, reaching an unsatisfying conclusion: Scientists still aren't sure how the worst health emergency in a century began. At a press briefing on Friday, Marietjie Venter, the group's chair, said that most scientific data supports the hypothesis that the new coronavirus jumped to humans from animals. That was also the conclusion drawn by the first WHO expert group that investigated the pandemic's origins in 2021, when scientists concluded the virus likely spread from bats to humans, via another intermediary animal. At the time, WHO said a lab leak was 'extremely unlikely.' Venter said that after more than three years of work, WHO's expert group was unable to get the necessary data to evaluate whether or not COVID-19 was the result of a lab accident, despite repeated requests for hundreds of genetic sequences and more detailed biosecurity information that were made to the Chinese government. 'Therefore, this hypothesis could not be investigated or excluded,' she said. 'It was deemed to be very speculative, based on political opinions and not backed up by science.' She said that the 27-member group did not reach a consensus; one member resigned earlier this week and three others asked for their names to be removed from the report. Venter said there was no evidence to prove that COVID-19 had been manipulated in a lab, nor was there any indication that the virus had been spreading before December 2019 anywhere outside of China. 'Until more scientific data becomes available, the origins of how SARS-CoV-2 entered human populations will remain inconclusive,' Venter said, referring to the scientific name for the COVID-19 virus. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it was a 'moral imperative' to determine how COVID began, noting that the virus killed at least 20 million people, wiped at least $10 trillion from the global economy and upended the lives of billions. Last year, the AP found that the Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus' origins in the first weeks of the outbreak in 2020 and that WHO itself may have missed early opportunities to investigate how COVID-19 began. U.S. President Donald Trump has long blamed the emergence of the coronavirus on a laboratory accident in China, while a U.S. intelligence analysis found there was insufficient evidence to prove the theory. Chinese officials have repeatedly dismissed the idea that the pandemic could have started in a lab, saying that the search for its origins should be conducted in other countries. Last September, researchers zeroed in on a short list of animals they think might have spread COVID-19 to humans, including racoon dogs, civet cats and bamboo rats. __ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
