Breaking News: AIMS Ireland welcomes the public consultation on HIQA’s draft standards for safer maternity care.

Press release from AIMS Ireland March 21st 2016

For immediate release

Contact 087 7543751 email chair@aimsireland.ie

AIMS Ireland welcomes the Draft Standards for Safer Maternity Care launched by HIQA today and urges all service users and those interested in ensuring a safer maternity service for Ireland to take part in the public consultation. The public consultation will run form 8 weeks from today until 5pm Monday 16 May 2016.

AIMS Ireland has been advocating for  maternity standards since its inception in 2007. These draft standards offer an opportunity for women to understand what a high quality maternity service looks like and how to recognise and have mechanisms to report back when the service falls short.

AIMS Ireland Chair Krysia Lynch said “These standards have been a long time in coming, and it is unfortunate that so many women and babies had to suffer appalling care and unsafe practices in our maternity services  in order to ensure their design. We hope that as many service users as possible will contribute to the consultation as this is a unique opportunity to create the standards that will govern the maternity service all mothers babies and families in Ireland deserve.”

Lynch continued “Whilst we already have many guidelines in Ireland theoretically governing the standard of care that women and their babies receive in our maternity services, the standards created by HIQA will be directly audited and will enable women and care providers to assess the safety and quality of care. These standards will also ensure a level of consistency amongst maternity units ensuring that irrespective of where a woman births she and her baby (ies) will receive the same high standard of safe care. At present gross inconsistencies exist as the recently published IMIS data testify.”

Lynch concluded “AIMS Ireland notes the sections related to informed consent within the standards and the reference to the Irish Constitution which limits and in some cases prohibits women’s capacity to give informed consent or informed refusal  in labour and the postpartum.”

ENDS

https://www.hiqa.ie/publications/draft-national-standards-safer-better-maternity-services