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LUCINDA CREIGHTON HAS said that if mothers at the Midlands Hospital in Portlaoise had received the same care she did, their babies would still be alive.
The Renua Ireland leader said she is acutely aware of the problems faced by the women who lost their babies in Portlaoise, as she had a “very difficult labour” when giving birth to her daughter Gwendoline last year.
Creighton told Oireachtas health committee her baby’s heart rate dropped and things went “seriously wrong”.
“Thankfully I was under the fantastic care of Professor Mick Foley and an amazing team in Holles Street. But all that went through my mind during that experience was ‘Thank God I’m in Holles Street’ – the staff, the care, the attention to detail. And, ultimately, when things went really, really seriously wrong, they saved my baby’s life.
The reality is if the level of care that I received had been afforded to the families in Portlaoise, their babies would also be alive – and that’s a really stark reality, and one that I find very deeply upsetting frankly.
Creighton introduced some of the parents from Portlaoise to the health committee when she was eight months pregnant.
Four medical staff from hospital have been referred for possible disciplinary action after a number of babies died in recent years.
Creighton said She would take Health Minister Leo Varadkar on his word when he said the Hiqa report into maternity services at the Midlands Hospital won’t be another one “that sits on a shelf”.
However, she added that as this fate has happened to “so many” reports on healthcare “it’s difficult to have confidence that anything will be different on this occasion”.
Creighton also said that it should be mandatory for all maternity hospitals to report babies’ deaths, saying hospitals and individuals who fail to do so should face criminal liability.
She noted that a 2014 report by Dr Tony Holohan showed that perinatal mortality statistics are “completely inaccurate”, adding: ”A voluntary system doesn’t work.”
Varadkar conceded the statistics “unfortunately give false reassurance”.
Earlier in the meeting, he said was “ashamed” of how families whose babies died at Portlaoise Hospital were treated.
The health minister said they had been treated “without respect, care and compassion when they most needed it, by members of my own profession and other professions”.
Patients and their families were treated dreadfully and at times inhumanely.
On Wednesday, Varadkar met bereaved parents to hear about their experiences.
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That says it all Lucinda. People at the top get the top care while Joe public has to hope for the best. What a disgrace.
She was in a Maternity Hospital as opposed to a general hospital. In a Maternity hospital (might come as news to you) they specialise in delivering babies, so outcomes are invariably better
I think you’re missing the point entirely john……should all hospitals not be capable of supplying the same standard of care?
No… Ireland is a small country. It makes sense to establish centers of excellence eg. Maternity, Children, Cardiac and concentrate resources and human capital.
How can you have a centre of excellence for maternity? So someone from the west of ireland should travel all the way to Dublin to receive good care whole giving birth?
Ms. Creighton seems unaware of the glaring contradiction in her stance here. Her political ideology is one which relentlessly seeks to attack and downgrade the public health service while creating juicy opportunities for privatization and profit in the health sector.
This will inevitably lead to better health care for the wealthy who attend private hospitals while the risk of tragedies such as those in Portlaoise will increase for the majority who depend on a public system stretched to breaking point under FG/Labour (and Renua) neoliberal market dogma.
You’re talking complete hogwash waddler.
Pretty simple…. Screen people regionally for possible difficult births or complications and refer them.
Skippy, Waddler is 100% right in what he is saying. Crichton and other ultra right wing conservatives are pushing to privatize everything. The ~TTIP freaks have had a hard on for our water and healthcare for a long time now and people like Crichton and other establishment have been bought by big business a long time ago.
So that explains why renua are in favour of abolishing irish water? She’s hardly ultra right wing…..you should read some of their policies and educate yourself. Or is it just a case of ‘down with everything’?
Ms. Creighton is in favour of abolishing Irish Water now because it is politically expedient with mass public unease at the utility. She had no problem with Irish Water as a member of FG. Lucinda in fact earned her political stripes ramming the ultra right wing Fiscal Treaty referendum down the throats of the Irish people in 2012 during her tenure in FG.
I think John was commenting on how she was under the care of Professor Mick Foley and anybody who has used a maternity hospital will know that unless you are using private healthcare or have a pregnancy that is labeled as high risk from the get go then you won’t see a professor or consultant. Actually Holles Street’s website will tell you what you get for your buck… public v private, a complete breakdown.
I accept that the poorest must depend on public health but for the price of a few pints and a couple of packs of cigarets per week most of us can purchase private medical insurance, that so many people chose not to do this by putting booze and fags before medical insurance is testimony to their priorities in life. I have no sympathy for such people, the same types are found at water protests. “Someone else must pay for me”
I pay €1200 per annum for health insurance for myself and am not covered for a consultant in a maternity hospital under my plan I’d have to pay first €200 excess. Realistically unless early on there are complications with the pregnancy and the baby is at risk there is no need for a consultant!
Skippy are you really so deluded?, Crichton will only change the label of Irish water because it is truly embarrassing (even by her standards) to be even associated with such a toxic corrupt quango.
@Skippy. That was exactly my point. Everyone should be getting the same standard of care but they are not. Most people are getting whatever the hospital can afford while the upper classes can afford the best.
Everyone should get the same standard of care, but let’s be honest….it will never happen. But surely we should be blaming the system as opposed to blaming the people who can afford the best health care.
I’m sure if you could afford the best health care for your family, that you would pay for that gladly
I would and I do but only because the public health system is a disgrace. As for blaming the system and not the people, well that’s a ridiculous comment. Who do you think is responsible for the system? The politicians, high paid managers and high paid consultants. I had to laugh a few years ago when I heard about Minister Martin Cullen going to America for treatment on his back. That said it all about the trust he had in the HSE. Some people are more worried about their top-ups than about services and when they are the ones in charge then you know it’s the taxpayer who will end up suffering.
Skippy it is absolutely scandalous that people in this country are ripped off by a sub standard health care system. There were many excellent working models in Europe i.e. Scandinavia even semi private models, these are all being laid to waste by private for profit models and the AIG s of this world swallowing smaller companies putting them out of business and monopolizing the health care system….obscene rates for little or nothing in return.
The Government or successive Governments of this country cared nothing for the people just lined their own pockets and sold the people to Big business and the Church.
I hope now that I never ever again have to read about how Ireland is the safest place in the world to give birth.
It was never true. All we are getting now it the truth, and it’s had to be dragged out of them by those who paid the highest possible price.
My wife went through hell because of a deaf condescending consultant. She was due and he said no, another week at least. She went 10 days over and had to have an emergency section when our child’s heartbeat started to fade. We were very lucky. Lucky that a different doctor was on that day and got her straight to the ER.
Lucinda dear, you are quite correct in what you say in regards to the treatment you received, however, not everyone can afford the type of private medical cover you have. There is a difference. Always was and always will be. that’s just the way it is in this little country.
Leo in the meeting said he was “ashamed” of how families whose babies died at Portlaoise Hospital were treated.
The health minister said they had been treated “without respect, care and compassion when they most needed it, by members of my own profession and other professions”.
Portlaoise had the breast cancer scandal in 2007 and this was also the case.
Back then fg had a motion of no confidence in Mary harney and wanted her resignation.
These scandals sadly keep happening and sadly probably will , till some one does something about the mismanagement. Somebody has to take responsibility and accountability. Like 2007 fg wanted that to be Mary harney. But no one was and I would say no one will now either.
Lucinda was probably a private patient
God forbid someone would work hard and be able to afford decent health care
God forbid we could get equal care for all.
Holles st private no doubt. Only the best for those with money!!
Or health insurance maybe!
Fear not Irish public.
When Leo ‘Hey, cmon, I’m only the minister, I don’t run the bloody health service’ Varadkar is finished on the chat show circuit he’s gonna get down and dirty with these people.
We’re so fortunate to have him in charge.
So now Lucinda is an expert on having babies….
It’s a bandwagon, she jumped on it!
Actually Chris she is an expert in having babies.The word ” expert” derives from “experience” and she has had the experience.
In fairness… You’d be hard pressed to find a person more experienced in forcing women to have babies they don’t want because it’s what she believes.
Brendan, I don’t think that just because someone has ‘experienced’ something, that automatically makes them an ‘expert’ in that field.
If you go to any referendum article, she probably has a gay cousin as well!!!
At what point did she refer to herself as an expert? She was merely making a point based on her own experiences
I wonder did she get the experience of being on a trolley or waiting to see a doctor for hours on end…..
I think Lucinda Creighton should be jailed for cruelty to her own daughter……she named her Gwendoline ffs ? very cruel of her :)
I feel sorry for the nurses.
I had 3 complicated pregnancy 1 in the combe and two in portlaoise. And I have to say I do understand that families are hurting but it’s not the entire staff in the hospital that made mistakes.
I had upmost care from portlaoise and was treated like crap in the combe!! Everybody has different stories to tell but they should be directed to the staff who made the mistakes and not the whole team
This is nothing more than a publicity stunt from Lucinda.
True, just ask Skippy
I guess if paul murphy did something similar, he would be a hero?
Skippy, are you really Lucinda? if not you must be an troll renua. I look forward to all the wonderful things that you will have to say in the upcoming GE.
I’m not lucinda….nor a troll. I do have a modicum of respect for her which is more than I can say for 90% of the useless wastes of space in the current Dáil. I like a lot of their policies, whether we will ever see them come to fruition is debatable, and whether they are all lies just to get into power….who knows.
What i do know, is that I will never vote for Fine Gael, because they are lying corrupt shysters, that only look out for themselves. Never vote for labour for obvious reasons. Fianna Fáil can take a running jump. Sinn fein I used to admire some of their politicians, but would never vote for them until Gerry hits the road. And the hodgepodge of left alliances won’t get a vote from me because it would be a wasted vote….and their socialist utopia is not something that particularly appeals to me. So, based on that I am willing to give something different a shot. If that changes I will keep you posted ;)
@Skippy, I agree totally with what you said there, except, the Lucinda/Renua part. You have to expect digs like that if you stand up for her. I would have more respect if she stuck by her guns and not leave FG. Very easy of her to promise to fix everything, but they have a long way to go to prove any of their talk.
@skippy if Paul Murphy,like Lucinda, had a baby, he probably would be a bit of a hero!!!
Don’t want to seem heartless, Lucinda, but I don’t care what your experience of childbirth was or the excellence of the care you got. Whilst I am aware that no matter your wealth or status you cannot be immune from tragedy, your circumstances would insulate you from that as far as is humanly possible. You chose to be a mother – however, you would deny the right to others not to be mothers if their circumstances do not permit. Having said all that – despite the awful circumstances giving rise to the current revelations – it is pleasing to see that the lie is given to our politico’s statements that “Ireland is the safest place in the world to give birth”. Nonsense.
Shameful grandstanding from Creighton here, by which I mean; she is using the awfully tragic deaths of these babies to say what exactly? That her baby is alive? And this benefits whom?
Lucinda the she devil
I had both my children under the public maternity system in cumh and both were complicated births. I had full faith in the doctors and nurses and when the going got tough, I ended up having the consultant on call delivering both. I could not fault the care and attention I (and the babies) got (both antenatal and postnatal). So, it’s not always a case of public v private maternity care. I can’t imagine that if I were a private patient, that I could’ve got better care. I think to myself every day how lucky I am to have my two children and to the doctors and nurses who work within the system, I will be forever grateful.
3rd world healthcare in a failed state, there seems no end to the horror stories coming out of Irish hospitals. The incompetents who ‘manage’ these shambolic hospitals should be held responsible for their failings, the dept of health and the HSE need to be also made accountable so the buck stops with those who fail to do their jobs. Of course this is Ireland we are talking about, the land of NO accountably and where responsibility only applies to the little people.
I think it should be pointed out that infant mortality in maternity hospitals like Holles Street or the Coombe is most likely lower than general hospitals with maternity units like Portlaoise because in a maternity hospital they are all experts in maternity care it’s 24/7 baby deliveries and pregnancy care.
Maternity hospitals deal with 1000′s of births every year
At munchins in Limerick we have a run down delapidated building but with excellent care and the staff though run off their feet do a great job because it’s a maternity hospital there’s no messing with rosters with staff getting pulled off maternity wards to cover A&E or general surgery or whatever
A doctor or nurse arriving at a maternity hospital is there to deliver babies and in maternity hospitals they are good at it with low infant and maternal mortality rates
It’s the general hospitals where the maternity unit is just one wing of the building where problems happen like Cavan and Portlaoise
I thank god I won’t be having more kids as bright sparks in the HSE want to move the Clare/Limerick maternity services from Munchins to a “centre of excellence” at the already overcrowded and underfunded UHL at Dooradoyle :(
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