Connacht Tribune
Saolta’s €17.5m maternity compensation bill
Compensation payouts at five maternity units across the region soared by 730% in the year Savita Halappanavar’s husband reached a settlement over her death, according to the HSE.
The National Treasury Management Agency reported that a total of €17.5 million was paid out for 20 claims relating to maternity incidents in 2016 in the Saolta hospital group, which includes University Hospital Galway (UHG).
This compares to just €2.1m compensation paid on 13 claims in 2015 for maternity units. Up until May this year, €8m was forked out in damages for seven maternity incidents.
Councillor Padraig Conneely asked at this month’s Regional Health Forum West meeting what was the reason behind the massive spike in compensation.
He pointed to a report which stated that the bulk of it was paid to Praveen Halappanavar in a settlement of the medical negligence case he brought against the HSE following the death of his wife Savita at UHG in 2012 – “a sad and unnecessary death”.
Savita was 17 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to UHG’s maternity unit. She died one week later after miscarrying and going into septic shock due to E coli in her bloodstream. An inquest into the death heard that Savita had asked for a termination on several occasions but was refused because a foetal heartbeat was detected.
The amount of the compensation was never made public.
Chief Operating Officer for the Saolta Group, Ann Cosgrove, said she was not going to comment on any individual case but said maternity services nationally were the most litigious of any care provided in hospitals.
“I think it’s important to note that it’s across five maternity units, it can vary from year to year and the value of claims can vary.”
The Fine Gael councillor said the jump in payouts were indicative that “it’s backwards you’re going”.