The HSE has insisted that Portiuncula University Hospital is safe and continuing to provide services as normal amid external reviews having been ordered into the delivery of nine babies there, including two who were stillborn.
The review involves six deliveries last year, one this year, and two still births in 2023.
It emerged last night that seven babies have had Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy (HIE), resulting in six of them being referred for neonatal hypothermic treatment, also referred to as neonatal cooling.
HIE is a reduction of oxygen or blood supply to the brain around delivery and it can occur before, during or after birth.
Speaking on RTÉ's Six One news, HSE West and North West Regional Executive Officer Tony Canavan acknowledged that people going to Portiuncula to have their children may be worried, but gave assurances that it was safe.
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"We absolutely understand that today's announcement, and the team that’s going into Portiuncula, creates additional anxiety for people that are hoping to have their babies with us in Portiuncula," he said.
"But I would say that the hospital is safe, it’s continuing to provide services as normal," he added.
"We have put in this team with a consultant obstetrician, director of midwifery and a senior manager who are working with the management team in Portiuncula to assure of its safety."
Mr Canavan had earlier said the rate of referrals for brain injuries at the hospital last year was higher than would have been expected.
He said it was of particular concern that there were five cases of babies referred for 'headcooling' at Portiuncula last year, while there was another case that "probably should have been".
"So the incidence was probably six cases for the year. It's a hospital that had around 1,300 births last year and we would have expected the rate to be somewhere in around one or maybe two cases referred last year," he said.
He said any incident of HIE is reported.
Portiuncula University Hospital in Ballinasloe serves East Galway, Westmeath, North Tipperary, Roscommon and Offaly.
Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has said she is "deeply concerned" about the issues under review at the hospital.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Ms Carroll MacNeill said it is very important to be open and transparent when there are problems.
She said she was very conscious of the trauma it will cause women affected and said it is important the reviews happen in a timely way.
Ms Carroll MacNeill said it was a concern there has been a history of issues at the unit.
She said the recommendations from the 2018 review were implemented and stability was established, but problems particularly arose last year, and also in 2023.
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HSE programme director denies negligence led to review
Clinical Director of the HSE's National Women and Infants Health Programme Dr Cliona Murphy welcomed the review.
Ms Murphy said the HSE wants to do all it can to ensure the safety of women and babies in the anti-natal and post-natal period.
"Most women experience a straightforward pregnancy and birth, and many women who have attended Portiuncula have responded positively about their experience there.
"But it is critical that we as a health service, that when we find metrics that are higher than we would expect, that we do all we can to establish what happened, that we can support those women and their babies," Ms Murphy said.
Dr Murphy said that there will be enhanced senior decision-making made at the hospital, as well as an intensified consultant presence at births.
She denied that it was negligence that led to the latest review being carried out.
"There are annual reports, so it's not true to say that there was no monitoring done. There was an inspection in 2019 and in 2020, 2021, 2022, rates were not out of sync with what would be expected.
"At the end of 2023, there were two stillbirths which, numbers wise, would maybe not have led to a concern but there was some features so it was thought prudent to look at those cases.
"Unfortunately in 2024 we did see a rise in those HIE cases which really was different to similar sized units."
