Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 April 2022
1400. Deputy Peter Burke asked the Minister for Health if he will ensure that general practitioners providing services under HSE schemes such as the maternity and infant scheme, maintain appropriate insurance that allows them to provide home birth services to all women who opt for this form of delivery; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19431/22]
View answerGPs do not provide intrapartum care, i.e. assistance during labour or at birth. Home birth services are provided under the care of a Self-Employed Community Midwife either on behalf of the HSE or on a private basis.
The Maternity and Infant Care Scheme provides an agreed programme of care to expectant mothers ordinarily resident in Ireland. This combined medical service is provided by the family GP and a hospital obstetrician and includes a schedule of alternating examinations at the GP’s practice and a maternity unit/hospital, as well as two post-natal visits to the GP.
As GPs are private practitioners, services provided by them and practice nurses are not covered by the State's Clinical Indemnity Scheme and instead GPs are required to arrange professional indemnity from private medical indemnity providerse; such arrangements are a matter between the two private parties concerned. I understand that private medical indemnity providers currently do not provide indemnity cover to GPs for services under the Maternity and Infant Care Scheme where a patient is opting for a home birth.
Further discussions need to take place with relevant parties to agree national policy on the role of the GPs in relation to homebirths. The HSE National Women and Infants Health Programme envisages that these discussions will commence during the course of 2022 as part of the work in relation to homebirths and the recommendation in the National Maternity Strategy (NMS) regarding a review of the Maternity and Infant Scheme being undertaken and any necessary adaptions made to reflect the Model of Care in the NMS.
