Maternity units in Portlaoise and other hospitals getting new forensic inspections by health watchdog
The maternity unit at Portlaoise hospital is facing another forensic inspection this year as part of a nationwide audit of hospitals by the independent health service watchdog.
The Health Information and Quality Authority, (HIQA), confirmed to the Leinster Express that it is to carry out the two-day unannounced inspection in 2019. The review of the service is part of the monitoring of standards against the National Standards for Safer Better Maternity Services.
All 19 maternity units in public hospitals will have been inspected against the National Standards by the end of this year according to HIQA.
"An unannounced inspection of maternity care at Portlaoise Hospital will take place this year," said a statement.
"HIQA does not have powers to regulate this aspect of healthcare, and as such, any recommendations made are not legally binding. However, should any risks be identified through the inspection process HIQA will escalate them within the HSE, as required and in line with our standard risk escalation process," said the authority.
HIQA’s guide to monitoring maternity standards sets out what is likely to be another forensic examination of the Portlaoise service. The inspection will have a focus on obstetric emergencies.
The authority says it will use three lines of enquiry:
- Line 1
The maternity unit or maternity hospital has formalised leadership, governance and management arrangements for the delivery of safe and effective maternity care within a maternity network.
- Line 2
The maternity service has arrangements in place to identify women at higher risk of complications and to ensure that their care is provided in the most appropriate setting; the maternity service has arrangements in place to detect and respond to
obstetric emergencies and to provide or facilitate ongoing care to ill women and or their newborn babies in the most appropriate setting.
- Line 3
The maternity service at the hospital is sufficiently resourced with a multidisciplinary workforce that is trained and available to detect and respond to obstetric emergencies at all times.
HIQA says its two-day inspection is unannounced as it allows inspectors to see services in the way they usually operate at a particular point in time.
Last summer all the maternity services were asked to carry out a detailed self-assessment process. This extensive questionnaire runs to nearly 30 pages of a 66-page monitoring guide. This covers almost every aspect of the service in more than 100 questions.
During the inspection, HIQA may interview staff, request documentation and inspect facilities.
Preliminary feedback will be provided to the General Manager or Master or Chief Executive Officer at the close of the inspection.
Prior to the visit, HIQA will review previous HIQA inspection reports, relevant unsolicited information received by HIQA in relation to the hospital, reports of external reviews or investigations in relation to maternity services at the hospital.
As well as inspecting the hospital, a patient consultation process will also be carried out with women who have had babies in Portlaoise and all maternity units.
The authority is already familiar with the unit through the major report published on the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise in 2014 which came about as a result of the deaths of babies at the hospital.
The report resulted in the creation of an integrated clinical network between Portlaoise's maternity department and the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital in Dublin. The HIQA review also led to a plan which set out a downgrade of Portlaoise hospital which would see the removal of maternity services.
More than 1,500 babies were born in Portlaoise in 2017 making it one of smallest acute hospital units outside the big standalone maternity hospitals.