Ivana Bacik
Question:611. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Health his views on maternal deaths during the period 2019-2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46661/23]
View answerTuesday, 24 October 2023
Questions (611)
Written answers
Maternal deaths have a devastating impact on the families and communities concerned.
The publication of the fifth Maternal Death Enquiry Ireland report for 2019-2021 this month, has shown many important findings. In particular, while the overall rate of maternal mortality has been stable, there was a tragic increase in the rate of suicide deaths for women during pregnancy and up to 1 year postnatally in this period.
It is vital that our health services take steps to ensure serious adverse events in maternity care, including maternal deaths, are appropriately reviewed and responded to at a national level.
The HSE’s Incident Management Framework was launched in 2018 and updated in 2020. The Framework is applied to the management of individual incidents and is the mechanism for incident investigations in the HSE, including maternal deaths. In line with the HSE’s Incident Management Framework reports relating to service user incidents are personal to the service user and their relevant person(s) and therefore are not generally published.
In addition, funding of €540,000 was provided in Budget 2022 for the establishment of an Obstetric Event Support Team (OEST) within the HSE’s National Women and Infant Health Programme (NWIHP). The OEST provides objective oversight over a specified list of obstetric clinical incidents occurring within Maternity Networks. It ensures that learning can be applied nationally, through engagement with relevant stakeholders, to lead to safer and improved quality of care for patients and families.
Furthermore, I am committed to continue improving much-needed mental health supports for pregnant and postnatal women.
Perinatal mental health disorders are those which complicate pregnancy and the first postnatal year. A key priority under Sharing the Vision, our national mental health policy, is the continued implementation of the Model of Care for Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Services (SPMHS).
The Model of Care for SPMHS was launched in 2017 and is delivered through a hub and spoke model. There are 6 hubs (located in the largest maternity hospitals) and 13 spoke sites. The 6 hub sites have specialist consultant-led multidisciplinary mental health teams including Perinatal Mental Health Midwives. Mental Health care in the spoke sites is provided by Perinatal Mental Health Midwives for women with milder mental health problems and by Liaison Mental Health teams (or General Adult Community Mental teams in their absence) for women with moderate to severe mental illness.
Awareness of Perinatal Mental Health problems has increased substantially within the maternity services since the inception of the Model of Care. All women attending maternity services now receive screening for mental health problems. There is a need to increase public awareness of perinatal mental health problems, not only among women themselves but also among their partners. The SPMHS programme has developed information leaflets on perinatal mental health, which are displayed within the maternity services and available online on the HSE website. Information on postnatal depression and postpartum psychosis is also available to the public on the HSE website. A Perinatal Mental Health App has been developed for staff with a patient App currently in development.