Member's statement: Paediatric Pathology Services
Member's statement by Mrs Sinéad Ennis on .
- MLA
- Mrs Sinéad Ennis
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 21 January 2025
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Paediatric Pathology Services
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4749478
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I will talk this morning about the continued lack of paediatric pathology services in the North and the implications that that has for our health service and, more importantly, the impact that it has on bereaved families. We have been without a paediatric pathologist in the North since 2019. In that time, hundreds of families have had to travel to Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool to access important post-mortem analyses. Some parents are unable to travel with their child, perhaps for a health reason. For some families, the thought of having to travel after just losing their child is simply too much to bear, so they decide to forgo that post-mortem analysis. That is their right, and every family will make whatever decision is right for them at the time. If, however, we do not have that necessary health information, if we do not know what caused a stillbirth or miscarriage and whether that will have implications for a second pregnancy, and if we do not know whether there are unique health challenges facing the population here in the North, that represents a gap in our health service, meaning that we are not equipping parents with the information that they need in order to make a decision about whether to undergo a second pregnancy. I know the impact that that is having on families. I sat with a family in my constituency who lost a baby during childbirth, and they explained to me the anguish that that caused them, the shock at their finding out that they would have to travel to Liverpool to find out the reason and the trauma that they still experience to this day from having gone through that. All that they ask is that we make sure that no other families have to endure that. That is something that we can do. We are a relatively small island with a relatively small population. We have approximately 100,000 births every year, and there is no reason that we cannot offer paediatric pathology services at home and therefore not add to the anguish that bereaved parents face when they lose a child. I know that the Minister of Health agrees with me. In the Chamber not that long ago, he alluded to some progress having been made on the issue. I know that he had been working with the previous Health Minister in the South on it. With an incoming Government there and a new Health Minister being appointed, I urge the Health Minister here to resume that conversation with the new Health Minister to make sure that such services are in place for families here at home so that we do not re-traumatise parents and families by making them have to travel to Liverpool. The service and care that they receive at Alder Hey is second to none, but this is about the fact that families have to travel, which adds to the trauma and anguish that they are already experiencing.
I urge the Health Minister to take up those conversations with the incoming Health Minister in the South and look to implement such services here at home to make sure that families have access to them and do not have to travel following a child's death.
542 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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