Organisers of a rally to protest over the downgrading of Portiuncula Hospital’s maternity unit have urged the public to turn out in numbers – to rachet up the pressure on politicians to push for a reversal of the move.

The Portiuncula Maternity Alliance (PMA) was set up in response to the decision by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to transfer an estimated one third of expectant mothers who are deemed high risk from the Ballinasloe hospital to other maternity units in the region.

The PMA insist that turning away at least 300 pregnant women from Portiuncula annually will render it unviable and unable to attract sufficient consultants and midwives. They warn it will also have a knock-on effect on services in its theatres, labs and diagnostics.

Co-founder, Councillor Evelyn Parsons, said in none of the reviews carried out on the treatment given to individual pregnant mothers and their babies has it ever been recommended to downgrade the unit. Rather recommendations have centred on improving resources, communication, governance and infrastructure.

“Any women who has come forward so far and who has cooperated with those carrying out various reviews at the maternity department have done so to improve services at Portiuncula, not to downgrade them,” she said.

“If you take away services for high-risk mothers, you must be absolutely certain you are moving them to a safer service – where is the risk assessment and proof of that?”

An initial meeting organised by the alliance on August 5 was attended by 300 people at Gullane’s Hotel and there was universal disquiet that expectant mothers would be forced to travel longer distances for their care.

Caption: Some of more than 250 people present at Portiuncula Maternity Alliance meeting Gullane’s Hotel last week, opposing HSE downgrades to local maternity services.

Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.