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THE HSE HAS said all families directly impacted by external reviews into the delivery of nine babies at Portiuncula University Hospital (PUH) in Ballinasloe, Co Galway have been contacted.
Tony Canavan, Regional Executive Officer of the HSE West and North West, added that the HSE have been in discussions with them and that contact will be made again when the reviews are completed.
Canavan told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that these reviews were prompted by “concern for the mothers who have, and will in the future, use services at Portiuncula”.
Since 2024, seven babies born in the hospital had hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy, resulting in six of those babies being referred for neonatal hypothermic treatment, also known as “head cooling”.
In 2023, two stillbirths occurred at the hospital and the care provided in relation to these two deliveries are also being reviewed externally.
Meanwhile, one of the cases arose last week.
The review is led by an external consultant obstetrician Dr Mark Skehan and the team includes a director of midwifery and a senior manager.
Canavan told RTÉ that the number of cases referred to for hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) was a “concern”.
Canavan explained that HIE can occur when a baby is deprived of oxygen either immediately before, during, or after birth.
It affects the central nervous system and babies born with HIE may have neurological or developmental problems.
“The treatment for that is described as ‘head cooling’,” said Canavan, “and when a baby is referred for head cooling from one of our hospitals to one of the Dublin hospitals, we report that as an incident and review it to try to understand why it happened and if anything could be done differently or better next time around.”
Each of the nine cases will be reviewed individually and most of them relate to head cooling.
Canavan said concern was first raised at the end of last year, when Portiuncula Hospital informed him of the number of cases that had been referred for head cooling.
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He said the number of cases referred for head cooling was unusually high at the hospital last year.
“Five cases were referred for head cooling, and one other case probably should have, so the incidence was probably six cases for 2024.
“It’s a hospital that had about 1,300 births last year, and we would have expected the rate to be somewhere around one, or maybe two, case referrals last year.”
Canavan said it was “important to understand that clinical incidents occur in hospitals all of the time, and the most important thing is that we are open to identifying incidents when they arise and that we examine and review each one and learn from it”.
Meanwhile, Canavan said Portiuncula is a safe place to have a baby.
“I spent the day in Portiuncula yesterday and it’s very clear all of the staff are highly committed to the delivery of safe care for their patients and highly committed to ensuring they continue to improve that care,” said Canavan.
A new management team has also been appointed to support maternity services at the hospital over the coming months.
They began work in the hospital yesterday in what the HSE said was one of “a number of changes we are taking as a result of concerns in relation to the provision of maternity services in PUH”.
Canavan said it’s expected that most of the reviews will be completed by the end of February, and “some of them possibly before that”.
However, he added that some of the cases arose at the end of 2024 and one arose last week.
“The process of review in relation to those cases have only just commenced and will take a number of months before they’re completed,” said Canavan.
“But if there are improvements that need to be made and they can be identified now, we’re getting on with those straight away, we’re not waiting.”
While Canavan said he understands that the reviews “will be worrying” for women due to have a baby in Portiuncula, he added that supports are being put in place and apologised for any distress caused.
“We are writing individually to all of those 800 women to advise them of what is happening and to explain why it’s happening and to give them access to further information if they want.
“We would advise anyone that’s booked in to contact their obstetrician or their midwife, or indeed their GP, if they’ve got any concerns.
“But our services at Portiuncula are continuing as normal.”
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