Debate contribution: Baby Loss Certificate Scheme and Pathology Service

Debate contribution by Mrs Sinéad Ennis on 15 April 2024.

MLA: Mrs Sinéad Ennis
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 15 April 2024
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Private Members' Business
Heading: Baby Loss Certificate Scheme and Pathology Service
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4483160

Text

Pregnancy loss and baby loss is probably one of the most traumatic things that anybody can go through. I pay tribute to Kellie Armstrong for sharing her experience. I am sure that it is not easy to recall those experiences. She put it more eloquently than any of us could. I thank her for sharing her experiences with us. Anybody who has gone through a pregnancy will know the range of emotions that you experience. You are excited, nervous and anxious, but, most of all, you just want to get through it unscathed and get to the point at which you have the baby in your arms. Unfortunately, for so many people, that just is not the reality. If we can take this relatively small step on the administrative side of things by issuing baby loss certificates, we absolutely should. If that helps in any small way in the healing process for those families and parents, it is a no-brainer. I thank the Minister of Finance — it sits within her remit — for being so forthcoming in her support for that aspect of it. I will focus my remarks more on the paediatric pathology element of the motion. As I said, the death of a child is agonising for parents and families. For over five years, the North has been left with no practising paediatric pathology, which forces families to face further heartbreak by having to take their child to Liverpool Alder Hey Children's Hospital for post-mortem services. I have been campaigning on this issue for a number of years. I was first alerted to it back in 2017-18, when I assisted a family in Warrenpoint in my constituency. I remember meeting and sitting with them in their living room while they recalled their experience of baby loss and of subsequently being told, "No, you can't access the post-mortem services here. We don't have those services. Your child will have to travel to Liverpool". They were just shaken to their core. That was the most traumatic thing that had happened to them. All they wanted was to be with that baby, bury that baby and come to terms with what had happened, but they were going to have to be separated from their baby and the baby was going to have to travel to Liverpool. That is something that they have still not got over. I have been working with that family and a number of other families.
Since 2018, I think that over 800 families have been affected by this issue and have had to seek a hospital post-mortem after the death of a child. That is not an insignificant number. In July 2023, I wrote to the Department of Health, seeking an update on its work to recruit a paediatric pathologist. I was disheartened to learn that the obstacles and pressures across these islands, and globally, still exist with regard to perinatal and paediatric pathology services and recruitment. I want to quote from the response that I received from the Department of Health because it might be relevant to the amendment. Part of the response stated:
"You will be aware that the restoration of a safe, robust and sustainable local service is made extra challenging by the need to recruit a team of paediatric pathologists simultaneously. Regrettably, despite significant efforts to recruit into this specialty, these difficulties remain. Therefore, it is increasingly unlikely that any further efforts by Belfast Trust to recruit into this specialty will be successful given the current overall UK position".
The letter goes on to say:
"The Department remains committed to progressing work with the Department of Health in the South regarding the feasibility of an all-island approach in the longer term".
Just to be clear, we are certainly not closing the door to any specialised services here in the North, but efforts to secure a paediatric pathology service here have not been successful, with all the evidence suggesting that it is unlikely to be successful in the short term. We need to put first the needs and wishes of those families that have been impacted on. Certainly, my take from having met families who have experienced this is that they do not want to be separated from their child, and they cannot understand why they cannot access the services here on the island. Members may be aware that there were pre-COVID discussions — I think that they have been mentioned during the debate — with the Department of Health in the South, and the letter that I received does go on to say that those discussions have resumed and are ongoing. It would have been useful for the Minister of Health to have been here to hear that and maybe give us a personal update. Sinn Féin has been working to see greater all-island cooperation with regard to the paediatric pathology services so that parents can access those services on this island. That would ease the burden on families who are already experiencing trauma due to the death of a child as it would mean not having to travel to England for a post-mortem. It is time to deliver post-mortem services on the island of Ireland —
— for those parents and families that, heartbreakingly, must access them. That is what they deserve, so I urge all Members to support the motion.

890 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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