Grieving parents should not have to make ‘horrible’ journey to Liverpool for post mortems

Northern Ireland families who experience the early loss of a child have had to travel to Liverpool for post-mortem examinations since 2019.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has said he is hopeful parents who experience the early loss of a child will no longer have to make the “horrible” journey to Liverpool for post mortem examinations.

Mr Nesbitt was answering Assembly questions following a meeting of last week’s North South Ministerial Council.

All Ireland cooperation on cancer treatment, addiction services and suicide prevention were discussed as well as the issue of paediatric pathology services.

Most paediatric post-mortems in Northern Ireland are for babies who are stillborn, late miscarriages and in rare circumstances of older babies and children.

Having previously been provided by the Belfast trust, recruitment difficulties have meant since 2019 the examinations have been carried out with consent of parents on an interim basis in Liverpool at the Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.

Sinn Féin MLA Colm Gildernew asked Mr Nesbitt about the “desperately sad” lack of paediatric pathology services in Northern Ireland, meaning families had to travel to England “in the worst of circumstances”.

Mr Nesbitt confirmed his counterpart in the Republic, Stephen Donnelly, was still considering the matter of further all-Ireland cooperation.

“Where we were in agreement is in those horrible, tragic circumstances. Having to travel by plane or ferry to Alder Hey in Liverpool is a big, horrible ask of parents in that situation.

“In my view, if it were possible to have a pathology centre – preferably in Belfast, but if not say in Dublin, I think would relieve a lot of that stress and strain.

“It’s in that area that we’re moving.”

During the questions, Mr Nesbitt also confirmed that budgetary pressures meant there was still no further plans to reintroduce the Cross-Border Health Directive scheme.

Before Brexit, the EU scheme was used to reimburse Northern Ireland patients with a clinical need that had to travel to the Republic for private treatment.

Replaced by a Republic of Ireland Reimbursement scheme in 2021, funding for the initiative ran out by September 2022.

Mr Nesbitt said that even though it had been “a very successful scheme” that eased pressure on waiting lists with over 4,000 applicants, there was nothing in his budget left to restore it.

“I think the satisfaction level was very high…I would have no political or ideological objection to reintroducing that scheme, but it is a question of our capacity in terms of our budget to do it,” he said.

“At the moment it’s not on the agenda.”

On the issue of the ongoing pay dispute with junior doctors, Mr Nesbitt said he believed that arbitration with the BMA’s Northern Ireland junior doctors committee (NIJDC) was now “the only way forward”.

Mr Nesbitt said that while the NIJDC said their current strike mandate was about pay restoration, that his could not be achieved without agreeing a new doctors contract.

Alliance MLA Nuala McAllister asked “what is their to negotiate if you’re already saying no?”

The NIJDC has previously told the Irish News it was “categorically untrue” they were unwilling to engage on contract reform, but would only do so with some form of commitment to improving pay on the table.