The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, has expressed "surprise" at a Western Health Board decision to cut funding for the Home Birth/Domino scheme in Galway.
The Minister has sought a report from the Western Health Board (WHB) on the decision to suspend the scheme so that it can fund the appointment of a consultant neonatologist at University College Hospital, Galway (UCHG). While he accepted the importance of the consultant appointment, the Minister has said that his Department was not informed of the decision by the health board to prioritise funding in this way.
The Minister's views were conveyed to a public meeting in Galway on Tuesday night, at which considerable anger was expressed over the suspension of the scheme. The Domino scheme has been run in the WHB area since 1999 by a team of midwives based at UCHG, who carry out all the necessary checks and tests that would otherwise be conducted by a consultant gynaecologist. The vast majority of women choose to have their babies delivered in hospital, with a small number opting for a home birth.
Under the system, the midwife remains with the pregnant woman in her home throughout labour and only arranges for admission to UCHG when labour is well advanced. Immediate access to a gynaecologist is available should the need arise, but with a normal pregnancy the baby is delivered by the midwife. After the birth, the woman and her baby are returned home with the minimum stay in hospital.
In 1999, 21 women chose the Domino option. This rose to 83 in the second year, while last year 116 women availed of the service. The number of home births over the same period rose. Last year, there were more than 3,000 births in total at UCHG and 160 home births.
At Tuesday's meeting, organised by Parents for Choice in Birthing, it was pointed out that the annual cost at €372,000 was not enough to fund a consultant and ancillary services.
The group is seeking a meeting with the Minister and has planned protests for next Monday's WHB meeting and for April 12th.
The board was invited to the public meeting but did not send a representative. It said yesterday that the adopted service plan for 2003 "agreed on the need to appoint a consultant neonatologist to meet both the volume and complexity of cases presenting, and the transfer of funding from domiciliary home care services to effect this."
