We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
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.
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.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say