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THE HEALTH SERVICE Executive has said that an “independent, external expert in obstetrics and gynaecology” is to be part of the team which investigates the death of Savita Halappanavar.
The 31-year-old woman died at Galway University Hospital last month following a miscarriage with her husband claiming that she was denied an abortion before later dying of blood poisoning.
The case has sparked an outcry with protests outside the Dáil last night as well as in Cork and the Irish embassy in London with fresh calls for the government to legislate for the Supreme Court X case ruling on abortion.
The HSE said in a statement that its National Incident Management Team will over see a review into the circumstances of Savita’s sdeath.
“To further strengthen this review the HSE is in the process of appointing an independent, external expert in obstetrics and gynaecology to the incident management team,” a statement from HSE West said.
The terms of reference of the review and the members of the review team are still being finalised but it is expected to take three months for the review to be completed.
The statement continued: “The process of incident review seeks to ascertain the facts relating to the incident, draw conclusions and make recommendations in relation to any steps that may need to be taken to prevent a similar incident occurring again.
“As part of this process the National Incident Management Team will liaise with Mr Halappanavar as next of kin.”
The hospital involved in the case has said that it cannot discuss the case with media but said that the coroner had been notified as had the National Incident Management Team.
A statement from Galway Roscommon University Hospitals Group said: “In the case of a sudden maternal death, these procedures are followed: notification of the death to the coroner; notification of the death to the HSE’s National Incident Management Team; the completion of a maternal death notification form.
“These national procedures are being followed by Galway University Hospital. It is standard practice to review unexpected deaths in line with the HSE’s National Incident Management Policy.”
The group said that it wished to emphasise that the facts of the case are yet to be established.
With Savita’s death having raised the issue of abortion again, the government confirmed yesterday that it had received the report of the expert group set up to examine the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights which said a failure to legislate for the X case was “inexcusable”.
Health Minister James Reilly has said that he will now review the report before bringing recommendations to Cabinet but there is no indication of how long this will take.
In a statement last night the Pro Life campaign said that it is “deplorable” that there were calls for abortion legislation in the wake of Savita’s death.
“It is deplorable that those who want to see abortion available here are exploiting Mrs Halappanavar’s tragic death when the Medical Council Guidelines are very clear that all necessary medical treatment must be given to women in pregnancy,” PLC’s Dr Ruth Cullen said.
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I seriously think its time that TD’s should wake up and take accountability for some of this mess. I think it should only be fair that All and I mean ALL TD’s should take a substantial pay cut just like the rest of the country. Why should they be on hundreds of thousands when A they work less than the average Joe and B they are obviously not doing their job right. For once I think Ireland should stand up and be counted. Look at greece they acted against their government and maybe its time we should too!
why should the tax payer be saddled yet again with the developers debt? if the govt is going to think about finishing off the ghost estates then it should just take them over without looking for any money from the developers and when finished use them as housing stock for local councils or sell them on at discounted cost for first time buyers, the developers who’ built’ these estates wont cough up a cent towards the cost of finishing them so why waste time and money trying? also well said to darren for the above post, too bloody right we should cut the number of t.d’s and their pay, 50 t.ds maximum and wage cap of 150k for the senior ones and 100k for juniors, with NO expenses vouched or otherwise, and cut the subsidised bars and restaurants in the dail too.
Thank you I was beginning to think I was the only one who felt this way!
Surely the Priory Hall issue is a no brainer?
Will anyone be held accountable, I doubt it and you can get away with everything in this country! Its a reminder of the corruption in this country, from the top down and we need to tear it up to start again!
Have you seen this complex. Level the ugly block make a park or playground and give the residents some of the unused Nama stuff littered around the same area. That’s the nobrainer. They could use the developers as foundation for the new park
“Finance minister Michael Noonan at bilderberg meeting” is he there in a private capacity?or is he representing the country? if so whats it all about?
Ahh sure he’ll come back and tell us all what he doing at these notoriously shady and secret meetings, isn’t he part of a crew that promised an open and transparent government?
Even if he is there in a private capacity he should declare it, a country’s minister for finance should come clean about his personal dealings with a capitalist cartel.
Don’t mind these [not] little things. Bring back [not] Cardinal Sean !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.2nd-republic.ie/site/ , Take a look and think about it!
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