The Mayor of Monaghan, Cllr Hugh McElvaney, has criticised what he called an "outrageous" decision by the North Eastern Health Board to open an antenatal clinic in the Mosney refugee centre.
"Have we lost the run of ourselves? We are giving maternity services to a holiday camp but take them away in Monaghan; I think it is outrageous," he told a meeting of the health board this week. It has been two years since the closure of maternity units in Monaghan and Dundalk, and births now take place in Cavan and Drogheda hospitals.
Ms Nancy Allen, the nursing representative on the board, welcomed the move.
The clinic is staffed by midwives and will provide women at the centre with antenatal care and, hopefully, prevent them from arriving unannounced at the Lourdes hospital in Drogheda, according to the health board.
"There is a tendency for such patients to arrive very late in their pregnancy and at times in labour," the chief executive of the health board, Mr Paul Robinson, said.
He said the facility would pay for itself because "it will mean we do not incur costs we would in dealing with an emergency".
Ms Patsy Doyle, industrial relations officer with the Irish Nurses' Organisation, welcomed the clinic, saying that in the first three months of last year, "women of 15 different nationalities arrived at the Lourdes \ and a lot did not have complete antenatal care and some were already in labour".
She called for the clinic to complement the service with a flying squad, and preferably an air ambulance, for women who go into labour at Mosney and who may need emergency care.
The report on the death of baby Bronagh Livingstone recommended such a service.
The number of births in the Lourdes hospital in Drogheda, which is the primary centre for maternity services in the health board, was around 3,300 last year, out of a total of 4,600 for the entire health board area. Of this total, 16 per cent were to non-national women, the majority of whom were living at Mosney.
Ms Doyle said pressure was being put on the maternity unit in Drogheda from a number of sources, and not just from the increase in births among non-nationals. "In the same hospital complex the staff are to pilot a midwife-led unit, support student midwives and deal with a huge increase in population in Louth and Meath," she said.
Cavan/Monaghan TD Mr Paudge Connolly, elected on a hospital action ticket, has called on the Department of Health to allow Mr Kevin Bonner, appointed by the Minister for Health, to carry out "an unfettered and exhaustive examination of the Monaghan/ Cavan hospital situation and provide a definitive and comprehensive plan for top-quality healthcare services".