Six babies delivered last year at and one born this month at Portiuncula University Hospital in Galway suffered blood or oxygen deprivation (HIE).
Most were immediately referred to Dublin for treatment known as neonatal cooling. The numbers are far in excess of what might statistically be expected.
The Health Service Executive has announced an inquiry into the delivery of these babies as well as two stillbirths in 2023.
This is not the first time concerns about maternity provision at the Ballinasloe hospital have been raised.
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In 2015, an inquiry - the Walker review - into maternity services there was established which identified multiple serious failures. These included staffing issues, a lack of training and poor communication among maternity staff, which contributed to the death of three babies.
The report examined the delivery and neonatal care of 18 babies at Portiuncula. Of these, six involved either stillbirths or the death of the baby shortly after delivery. In three cases, there were “key causal factors” which if handled differently would have likely led to a different outcome.
Warren Reilly and his wife Lorraine lost two baby girls, Amber and Asha, at Portiuncula hospital within two years of each other, and they took part in the 2015 Walker review. He tells In the News how this week’s news of several more maternity-unit failings has impacted on him.
Irish Times journalist Sarah Burns has been reporting on this unfolding story.
Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Aideen Finnegan.
