Mother should have been allowed deliver baby in Monaghan rather than Cavan, says campaigner.
The birth of yet another baby on the roadside half way between Monaghan and Cavan Hospitals early yesterday has led to renewed criticism of the North Eastern Health Board for not restoring some form of maternity service to Monaghan Hospital.
A report published last July, seven months after the death of baby Bronagh Livingstone who was born in an ambulance on the way from her local hospital in Monaghan to Cavan Hospital, said a midwifery-led maternity unit should be provided at Monaghan Hospital.
The Bonner report said this would "restore much confidence to the community and . . . be of enormous benefit to staff morale at the hospital".
The recommendation has not yet been acted on, however.
The health board said yesterday it had a taskforce dealing with this issue and the taskforce had decided midwifery-led units should be set up initially in Drogheda and Cavan and evaluated prior to being put in place in Monaghan.
The units in Drogheda and Cavan have not been set up either, however. But a spokeswoman said most of the protocols for the development of these units have now been agreed.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that the health board has decided not to act on a recommendation from an independent expert group set up by the Minister for Health, Mr Martin, in the wake of the Livingstone case. It recommended a flying squad be put in place to tend to mothers who presented in labour at Monaghan Hospital.
The health board spokeswoman said the board's chief executive, Mr Paul Robinson, referred this to a taskforce for evaluation and the taskforce concluded after reviewing international experiences that a flying squad was not a good idea.
It has been confirmed that the woman who gave birth in an ambulance on the way to Cavan Hospital from Monaghan town yesterday is doing well in Cavan Hospital, as is her baby boy.
The woman, who was staying at a centre for asylum seekers in Monaghan town, went into labour and her partner called the NEHB ambulance control centre at 4.29 a.m. An ambulance was mobilized from Monaghan and she gave birth half way to Cavan, assisted by a midwife who was on board.
Mr Peadar McMahon, chairman of the Monaghan Community Hospital Alliance which has been campaigning for the restoration of maternity services to Monaghan Hospital said if there had been any complications at the birth, the health board could have had another baby's death on its hands.
He said when the baby's birth was imminent, its mother should have been allowed deliver it in Monaghan rather than being sent all the way to Cavan.
There have been at least six roadside births between the hospitals since the death of Bronagh Livingstone.