Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 12 Nov 1997

Vol. 482 No. 6

Written Answers. - Maternity Services.

Dan Neville

Ceist:

301 Mr. Neville asked the Minister for Health and Children the plans, if any, his Department has to ensure that there is equality of access to the maternity services in all health board areas in view of the high disparity in the number of consultant obstetricians between health board areas; the plans, if any, he has to ensure that there is equality of access between the Mid-Western Health Board region and Dublin and other regions; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that, in practice, a pregnant woman in Limerick has considerably reduced access to senior medical personnel compared with a woman having her baby in Dublin or Galway, and that the quality of care is consequently inferior and there is potential for more adverse outcomes; his views on whether there is a serious problem evolving in maternity services; whether the facilities and staffing levels will prove entirely inadequate if energetic action is not taken by his Department at this stage; and whether his Department will be proactive, and not simply reactive, to this crisis. [18915/97]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Cowen)

The maternity and infant care scheme provides for a system of combined care, whereby an expectant mother is under the care of both her general practitioner and her hospital obstetrician, and her care is shared between the two. In 1995, 29,922 women availed of this scheme, which is available to women throughout the country, irrespective of area of residence.

In addition, in each maternity hospital and maternity unit throughout the country, the services of relevant medical and nursing personnel are available to any woman who requires maternity care. These include obstetricians, neo natal paediatricians, midwives and other hospital personnel.

In Limerick Regional Maternity Hospital, maternity care is provided through five obstetricians and nursing and midwifery personnel. In addition, neo-natal care is provided through a consultant paediatrician and three visiting consultants.

The number of births in the hospital in 1996 was 3,708 and the recommended norm for consultant staff to births is one consultant obstetrician per 750 to 1,000 births, in medium and large maternity units. On this basis, Limerick Regional Maternity Hospital has an adequate level of consultants in obstetrics and no proposals have been submitted, to my Department, by the Mid-Western Health Board, to increase the number of obstetricians at the hospital.

As regards outcomes of pregnancy, the 1996 peri-natal mortality rate at the hospital was 5.38 per 1,000 births, compared with recent annual national figures of around 9 per 1,000. There were no maternal deaths at the hospital last year.

I am not aware of a serious problem evolving in the maternity services but I will, of course, continue to keep this matter under review, in the context of the ongoing maintenance and development of the hospital system.