Letters are being sent to about 800 expectant mothers due to give birth at Portiuncula University Hospital (PUH) in Co Galway by the Health Service Executive, informing them of external reviews taking place into the delivery of nine babies.
Dr Pat Nash, regional clinical director HSE West and North West, confirmed the letters would be received over the coming days. He said the HSE wanted to be “open and transparent” with the women regarding the reviews at the hospital.
The HSE said on Monday that individual external reviews were being conducted into the delivery of nine babies at the hospital, following concerns in relation to the provision of maternity services.
An external management team was to oversee and manage maternity services there over coming months, it said.
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Six babies delivered in 2024 and one in 2025 had hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) with six referred for neonatal hypothermic treatment, known as neonatal cooling. In addition, two stillbirths occurred at the hospital in 2023 and the circumstances are also being reviewed externally.
HIE is essentially the reduction in the supply of blood or oxygen to a baby’s brain before, during or after birth.
The parents of a baby girl, Asha, who was stillborn at PUH in 2008, said news of the latest reviews was “very hard to digest”.
Warren Reilly said his wife Lorraine was “shocked and numb” when she was informed on Monday while he was in “floods of tears”. The couple’s second baby girl, Amber, was also born at the hospital in 2010 but died a week later at Holles Street.
Speaking on Tuesday, Dr Nash said he expected that seven of the reviews would be completed in the next month, while the other two would take another three to four months.
He said the families would be involved in the reviews and would receive copies of them once completed. Dr Nash said he was committed to ensuring the HSE would do “anything we can do to make the service as safe as possible going forward for all women attending”.
In relation to the letters, Dr Nash said women would be informed of the current situation regarding the reviews and could also contact the HSE with any concerns they had.
He said if expectant mothers wished to have their maternity care transferred elsewhere, they would be facilitated to do so.
A report on maternity services at PUH in 2018 identified multiple serious failures, including staffing issues; lack of training; and poor communication among staff, which contributed to the death of three babies. The report was commissioned in 2015 to examine delivery and neonatal care of 18 babies.
James Walker, professor of obstetrics at the University of Leeds, who led that review, said on Tuesday that he was “surprised” and “saddened” by this week’s developments.
“It seems to be quite sad that we’re back to where we were, or apparently back to where we were… I’m saddened that all that effort, particularly by us and then them [the HSE and implementation board], doesn’t seem to have made much difference,” he said.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said she was briefed in recent days on the situation at PUH and once the reviews were completed she would consider the next steps with her officials and the HSE.
The Irish Patients’ Association has also written to the HSE and the Minister expressing its “deep concern” regarding the “persistent issues” within maternity services at PUH.
The letter, seen by The Irish Times, states that it is “imperative to move beyond individual case reviews to identify systemic failures and implement lasting solutions”.
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