SF calls for disclosure on newborn's death

Sinn Féin has called for full disclosure by the Health Service Executive and Cavan General Hospital on the circumstances surrounding the death of a newborn baby boy last week following his transfer from the hospital to a Dublin neonatal unit.

Both the HSE and the hospital should ensure that all due haste is employed in setting up a clinical review into the death and publishing its findings, according to the party’s health spokesman Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin.

The HSE yesterday expressed its sympathies to the parents of the deceased infant, who died in the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin on Saturday after being transferred from Co Cavan.

It said the hospital management team had confirmed that on the night of his birth last Thursday there was access to an emergency theatre at all times.

Caesarean section

At the time a decision was taken in Cavan hospital to deliver the boy by Caesarean section, another Caesarean section was being carried out in the main theatre and a second theatre had to be prepared, RTÉ reported yesterday.

The boy was born critically ill and had to be transferred to a unit in Dublin.

The HSE said the Dublin city coroner had been informed in accordance with policy and the circumstances of the case would be examined.

A clinical incident review is being planned, which will involve a multidisciplinary team reviewing all aspects of the care provided for mother and child, it said.

Mr Ó Caoláin said that given the concerns raised in the media, it was important that hospital management and the HSE ensured all due haste was employed in established the promised clinical review.

“While I have every confidence in the excellent care provided for expectant mothers and women in labour at Cavan General Hospital, I believe it is in the interests not only of the tragic family involved but of all families across Cavan and Monaghan and adjacent counties that there be full disclosure of the facts in this most regrettable case.”