Urgent repairs to equipment at the National Maternity Hospital cannot be undertaken because of a shortage of capital funding, according to the hospital's annual report for 2002 published yesterday.
The hospital's deputy chairman, Mr Brian Davy, writing in the report, criticises "the complete absence of minor capital funding" for the hospital.
This, he said, "leaves the hospital in a situation where urgent repairs on our infrastructure and equipment replacement cannot be undertaken".
He said the absence of this funding was a matter of "extreme concern" and had the potential to undermine seriously the capacity of the hospital to maintain key services at agreed levels.
The hospital, at Holles Street, Dublin, delivered 8,162 babies last year.
It was the first time in 20 years that more than 8,000 mothers had given birth at the hospital.
Some 48 per cent of them were first-time mothers.
A further 263 mothers had their babies delivered in the community under its home-birth support scheme.
Dr Declan Keane, the hospital master, reported that the perinatal mortality rate for the year was disappointingly high, at 12 per 1,000.
"These figures were higher than previous years and many related to an unfortunate large number of unexplained deaths in women between 37 and 41 weeks' gestation," he wrote.
He added that the Caesarean section rate at the hospital had increased by one per cent in 2002 to 15.6 per cent, which although lower than other hospitals, remained a cause for concern.
"One must remain concerned at the increasing rise in Caesarean sections which are predominately due to an increase in obstetrical abnormalities as well as a disproportionate increase in elective Caesarean sections", Dr Keane wrote.
The hospital's master also noted that, despite the increase in births in recent years, partly due to the significant numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers delivering at the hospital, the number of obstetric consultants had decreased.
The report also refers to the number of infants born to drug-abusing mothers at the hospital as "another big problem".
These infants suffer severe drug-withdrawal symptoms after birth, including agitation, sweating, jittery movements, excessive crying and poor feeding, it said.
In addition, the report reveals the hospital has started an early transfer programme for women after giving birth.
"This will relieve the bed crisis in the hospital but more importantly will also offer quality postnatal midwifery care to women and their families in the comfort of their own home".
Under the programme, "straightforward" women can be discharged six hours after giving birth.
Meanwhile, plans by the hospital to move to the site of St Vincent's Hospital have had cold water poured over them for financial reasons, Dr Keane said.
However, he expressed the hope that the hospital's vision could still be realised in light of one of the recommendations in the yet-to-be published Hanley report on medical staffing in the health service.
The report said single-specialty hospitals should move to the site of acute hospitals.