HSE silenced on baby death report

Seamus Enright

The HSE has been temporarily prevented from publishing a report following the investigation into the death of a baby boy, following child birth at Cavan General Hospital in November 2012. The doctor at the centre of the investigation was granted a High Court injunction on Monday, halting any publication of the report until a further court hearing takes place next month.
In an ex-parte application before Justice Keane on Monday last (August 11), Dr Salah Abdel-Aziz Ahmed, consultant obstetrician at Cavan General Hospital, secured an interim injunction banning any further dissemination or publication by the HSE of an external report into the tragic death of a baby born at the hospital in November 2012.
A copy of the report has already been given to the Navan parents of baby Jamie Flynn, Francis Flynn and Fiona Watters. Jamie died two days after his birth at Cavan General Hospital on November 22, 2012.
Jamie’s passing was one of three deaths termed ‘adverse incidents’ relating to childbirth at Cavan General Hospital over a two-year period. Two of the deaths occurred in April and May of this year.
An inquest into the death of baby Jamie heard that Dr Salah Aziz had delayed an emergency caesarean section because there was no available nursing staff to man the operating theatre at the time.
The obstetrics registrar and special house officer on duty were carrying out an emergency c-section on another woman and were also not available.
Baby Jamie was born shortly before midnight on November 22, 2012. He was transferred to the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin where he died in his mother’s arms two days later.
Last Friday, the HSE announced that the final report into the baby’s death, carried out by a team from the National Maternity Hospital in Dublin, had been received and passed on to the family.
The investigation was ordered to establish the facts leading up to the incident, while identifying any key causal factors that may have contributed to the loss of life.
Hospital management also acknowledged the significant time and efforts of the review team in completing the report. They gave a commitment that the recommendations contained would be “addressed in full”.
Dr Aziz and his legal team have now secured an interim injunction against any further dissemination or publication by the HSE of the report pending a further detailed hearing in the High Court.
“Therefore, at this stage this report cannot be further circulated by the HSE until a hearing in the High Court, scheduled for September 2nd, 2014,” a statement from the HSE to this newspaper yesterday (Tuesday) read.
Prior to the injunction, the former Minister for Health, James Reilly, had instructed the State’s health watchdog HIQA to undertake a review of maternity services at Cavan General.
He also gave a commitment to the Dáil under questioning from Sinn Féin Deputy Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin that the contents of any report would be published with a view to restoring confidence in maternity services at the local facility.