Maternity services ‘Cinderella’ of health system - consultant

Funds are being directed away from maternity services in hospitals around the country says consultant obstetrician Peter Boylan.

The former master of the National Maternity Hospital says that maternity services are "the Cinderella" of the health system.

He welcomed the Health Information and Quality Authority’s (HIQA) launch of an eight week public consultation process on new draft national standards for safer, better maternity services.

This represents the first service-specific standards developed by HIQA.

"HIQA's job is to set standards and to make sure they are achieved. They are the policeman ensuring that what's in the national maternity strategy gets implemented," Mr Boylan told Newstalk Breakfast.

"Staffing is one of the things that everyone recognises are deficient in maternity services in Ireland, staffing levels need to be brought up to international levels.

“The problem is in governance structures in peripheral hospitals, and the way in which maternity units are integrated into the general hospital structure.

“Funds get diverted away from maternity care and into the general hospital.

Mr Boylan said doctors and midwives have difficulty accessing operating theatres, and that maternity services do not have a say at the management table.

“It is very important that maternity services are separate from the general hospital governance structures. That’s why the three Dublin maternity hospitals work so well,” he added.

Mr Boylan said that the integration of the maternity unit at Cork University Hospital into the general hospital was not working because of the lack of a good governance structure.

“Their budget was cut within months of moving to the new Cork University Hospital. That just hasn’t worked. They have difficulty accessing operating theatres, budgets cuts, they don’t have control over the way maternity services are funded.

“These are problems that the strategy has recognised, the HIQA standards will be around to police them. That can only be a good thing for the future.”