Thousands march against removal of vital Midlands maternity service

Thousands of people took part in a protest march against the removal of a vital Midlands maternity service in Ballinasloe on Saturday afternoon.

Access to the maternity service in Portiuncula University Hospital has been cut for some women in seven counties across the Midlands, including Galway, Roscommon, Westmeath, Longford, Leitrim, Offaly and Tipperary.

Portiuncula University Hospital recently reduced the extent of its maternity services, transferring care for women with "higher-risk" pregnancies to other hospitals. The HSE says this decision was reached “following multiple reviews into maternity care at the hospital, including concerns about nine deliveries and two stillbirths since late 2023.” The hospital will continue to provide standard maternity services, including outpatient appointments.

The marchers gathered on Fair Green where they were briefly addressed by Cllr Evelyn Parsons, who is a GP and a Councillor on Ballinasloe Municipal District, who said the march was about “people power and political pressure and reinstating a full maternity service to Portiuncula. We want action on this.” She said this was a powerful show of opposition, “to show that our community stands united against this. It's saying 'Keep your hands off our hospital'!”

As we marched along, whistles blew and a loudspeaker played “You'll never walk alone” and “The town I loved so well.” On Dunlo Street the loudspeaker was switched off and people began chanting “Care can't wait, reinstate.” Shopkeepers and shoppers stood outside on the footpaths and watched as the march passed by, hailing people in the march that they knew and sometimes applauding.

The march proceeded from Fair Green, past the Town Hall, turned right onto Society Street, Dunlo Street (past the once landmark hotel Hayden's, which has been closed since 2016), along Dunlo Hill and stopped at the hospital entrance where a number of speeches were delivered. The mood of the marchers was good-humoured but also serious and determined. Many held placards. One placard said, “We're all born equally, or are we?” Another, “Equal rights for rural communities.” “We deserve better” said one, and another, “No to cuts and closures.”

The first speech at the entrance to the hospital was delivered by Cllr Evelyn Parsons who said it was wonderful to see such a big turnout (the organisers afterwards estimated a turnout of 3,500 people), which had grown as it proceeded through the town. She said the hospital was part of the stories of our families and communities for many years. “It's not just bricks and mortar. Your presence from several counties means that this unit matters, that we will not let it be downgraded. Behind every statistic, every policy decision there are real people.”

The councillor read out a couple of testimonials from mothers who had strong reasons to be very grateful to the professionalism shown in Portiuncula. One mother said she had gone through an HIE birth, a process which meant possible brain injury to her baby. Thankfully, because of Portiuncula, the injury didn't happen. “However,” said the mother, “asking mothers to travel longer distances is the opposite of a safety plan. It is a terrifying thing. The HSE is abandoning rural mothers. It's a betrayal of trust which puts optics over people.”

The mother said her family had taken part in the recent HSE reviews of the hospital and was “very disappointed with the outcome and conclusions of the reviews. We should want to help women; instead the opposite has been put in place. Without Portiuncula our son might not be here today. He might have been brain damaged. The midwives were wonderful. Our son was our third child to be born in Portiuncula. We are upset that, on the back of the reviews, this agenda has been implemented. If we ever did have another baby we would want to have that baby in Portiuncula.”

Cllr Parsons said people who participated in the reviews were dismayed by the HSE's negative conclusion. These people now wanted to put positive narratives against the negative narrative. Addressing the TDs present she said, “Our voice must be heard in the Dáil. If not, then the TDs must think about whose side they are really on. We welcome whatever political pressure you can bring. Ask yourself, is the closure of this aspect of the maternity service in Portiuncula what I want for the people who elected me and is this a government I can continue to support?”

She called on the opposition TDs to call a halt and put forward a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, a suggestion which received a round of applause from the crowd. “We know the truth, we know that once services go they are very rarely brought back. Look at Ennis, Nenagh, look at the huge pressure on University Hospital Limerick. In Portlaoise Hospital they stood together, fought and saved their A&E services and we can take inspiration from that. Our simple demand is we want the full reinstatement of our maternity services in Portiuncula and that all the positive recommendations of the Walker Report be fully implemented. We also wonder why a Model 3 hospital doesn't have a business manager?”

The Councillor said this issue was about rural families who deserve the same standard of care as those living in Dublin. She said the rural communities of the midlands will not be ignored, silenced and will not stand by as their services are downgraded.

Doctor Kevin Connolly, a retired Paediatrician, said this was about doing the right thing and the safer thing for mothers and babies. “I am very concerned that the wrong thing has been imposed on us. It is not safe, it is reducing capacity and taking away resources; it is patently the wrong thing to do.” He praised the nuns who established Portiuncula in 1943, and ran a hospital of a very high standard.

John Hanniffy also spoke. He was previously the Secretary of the Portlaoise Hospital Action Committee. In 2017 there was a proposal to remove the A&E department in Portlaoise Hospital. “There was a deliberate nibbling away by the powers that be over the years, a persistent badmouthing, which had a massively negative impact on the morale of the staff in Portlaoise Hospital. We were told the service would be moved to Tallaght, a hospital which was overcrowded. You are facing the very same negative, mealy-mouthed campaign. In Portlaoise in 2017 we had seen what happened in Clonmel, Ennis, Nenagh, Cavan and Monaghan. We knew closing the services in smaller hospitals didn't work. There is no centre of excellence in the Republic of Ireland. We commissioned our own independent report and got great help from the GPs. We were also conscious of the stakeholders outside the hospital, who were linked to the hospital in various ways, who would suffer. Don't listen to the mealy-mouthed, negative words; they are rubbish. Portlaoise is now flying it. The number of births in the maternity unit is increasing year on year. The A&E is doing very well. Our main issue during our fight was maintaining morale, because it had been undermined by the steady stream of negativity, a steady stream which went on for 15 years. For the powers that be it's about bricks, mortar, budgets and finances; it's not about people, communities or what is right. You must fight the negative campaign. Focus instead on the positives. That's what we did in Portlaoise. We said to the powers that be, stop the negativity, stop the bad mouthing campaign.”

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https://www.offalyexpress.ie/news/midland-tribune/1869120/protest-this-saturday-over-proposed-downgrading-of-portiuncula-hospital.html