Minister for Health, James Reilly has asked his chief medical officer to report to him on the deaths of four babies at the maternity unit in the Midland Regional Hospital in Portlaoise ahead of an RTÉ programme due to air tonight.
The programme will centre on the deaths of a number of babies over the course of a six-year-period who died either during the labour or within seven days of birth at the unit.
The programme makers say that a report into the death of a baby at the maternity unit in 2008 found there were a number of failings in the care provided by the hospital to both the mother and baby.
“These included a failure to recognise when the baby was in distress during labour and the inappropriate use of a drug used to increase the rate of contractions. A number of recommendations were made in the report to improve patient safety,” RTÉ said in a statement ahead of the programme by the RTÉ Investigations Unit which will air on tonight’s Prime Time.
However, the programme makers say that other babies subsequently died in “very similar circumstances” and that the review of these cases also found failings in the care provided.
“The programme finds the hospital and HSE had failed to implement the previous recommendations in full, which may have saved these babies lives,” the RTÉ statement said, adding that neither the hospital nor the HSE informed the bereaved families that an investigation had taken place in their case or that a report had been produced.
It said that in one case a mother only learned of the investigation and report in to her baby’s death five years after his death.
Speaking on the Today with Sean O’Rourke show on RTÉ Radio this morning Dr Reilly said he had asked for a report to be drawn up on the matter after which time the minister said he would take “whatever actions need to be taken to further make sure that this doesn’t happen again”.
He described the alleged failure to share reports on the babies’ deaths with their parents as “utterly unacceptable”.
Patient advocacy organisation, Patient Focus, which is working with a number of the women and families who involved in the programme said it was “alarming that the recommendations of several reviews seem to have been ignored at the unit appearing to lead to the unnecessary deaths of babies”.
It called for the HSE to establish a wide ranging independent investigation into the maternity care provided at the unit going back 10 years.
Patient Focus also called on the Minister for Health to consider as a matter of urgency the need for a wider review in relation to the care provided to mothers and babies in other maternity units.
The HSE was unable to provide an immediate comment on the allegations.