THE HSE have announced external reviews into the delivery of nine babies at Portiuncula University Hospital after concerns were raised.
Health bosses brought in a “highly experienced management team” to oversee maternity services at the Galway hospital in the coming months.
This team, headed by external consultant obstetrician Dr Mark Skehan, will manage and support all aspects of maternity, gynaecology and neonatal services.
The HSE said the team will report directly to the HSE West and North West regional management.
In a statement, Regional Clinical Director Dr Pat Nash expressed apologies to the women and families who may be worried or upset by this news.
He said: “I want to firstly apologise to all those women and families for whom this news will be worrying or upsetting, we are making these changes now to ensure that the maternity service at Portiuncula is as safe as possible for mothers and their babies.
“External reviews are currently under way into the delivery of nine babies in PUH. Since 2024, seven babies had hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE), resulting in six of those babies being referred for neonatal hypothermic treatment, also referred to as neonatal cooling.
“In 2023, two stillbirths occurred at the hospital and the care provided in relation to these two deliveries is also currently being reviewed externally.”
Dr Nash also pointed out that the incidence of HIE, which led to the need for neonatal cooling treatment, is much higher than what’s seen nationally or internationally in a similar timeframe.
Hypoxic Ischaemic Encephalopathy can be caused by various factors and refers to the lack of blood or oxygen supply to a baby’s brain before, during, or after birth.
And Dr Nash added that Therapeutic Hypothermia is now the standard treatment for term infants with moderate to severe HIE.
He added: “This treatment involves cooling a baby quickly after birth and keeping them cool for several days. It slows the brain’s metabolism and can prevent further damage. The sooner body cooling starts, the better the outcomes for the baby.”
Tony Canavan, Regional Executive Officer, emphasised that their main concern is the women who have had, or will have, babies at Portiuncula and the well-being of their children.
He said: “From today, we have appointed a highly experienced team, led by an external consultant obstetrician to manage and lead the maternity service at Portiuncula University Hospital to ensure as safe and high quality services as possible, while we await the outcome of the reviews currently underway.
“We are concerned by these cases and we believe it is important that we review the care provided.
“We know this is a distressing time for women whose care is under review and we apologise for any added distress that this news brings.”
Dr Cliona Murphy, Clinical Director of the HSE National Women and Infants Health Programme, said they’re now working closely to put additional measures in place to improve safety for women delivering their babies.
She said: “We have been working closely with the team in HSE West and North West and at Portiuncula University Hospital to put in place more measures to improve safety for women delivering their babies at this unit.
“We will continue to provide the necessary support to the unit and will work closely with the new management team there, led by an external consultant obstetrician.
“A series of service improvement plans and other measures were implemented at the unit following these reviews.”
Women who have questions about the maternity unit can contact the HSE directly at 1800 807 008.
AMAZON drone deliveries are set for take off in the UK for the first time.
The tech giant has been using them in the US since 2022 and had said in 2023 they would be taking to the air here by the end of last year.
Amazon is today set to announce plans for flights from a delivery centre in the North East.
Bosses will say: “Prime Air is taking steps to start planning for initial flights from our fulfilment centre in Darlington.”
The drones will be able to transport goods in shoe box-sized package within 30 minutes.
But the maximum weight of deliveries is no more than 5lbs, or 2.2kg, ruling out the possibility of bulky goods.
Amazon’s drone device, the MK30, has been updated so it can cope with rain — an essential for the British weather.
However insiders cautioned that the process could still take many months before Amazon drones take to our skies.
Amazon’s Prime Air still has to get the green light from the Civil Aviation Authority and local planning permissions to use the airspace and a landing dock next to its warehouse in Darlington, Co Durham.
But an Amazon spokesman said. “We are ready and excited to make drone delivery a reality for our UK customers.
“We have built safe and reliable drone delivery services elsewhere in the world in close partnership with regulators and the communities we serve, and we are working to do the same in the UK.”
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen said: “I am delighted that Teesside will become home to Amazon’s first UK drone delivery service.
“In Teesside we do things differently.
“We say yes when others say it’s too difficult.
“We are grabbing the opportunities and the optimism of the tech revolution — so it’s no surprise that Amazon has chosen Darlington as the location to launch Prime Air in the UK.”
LOVE Island star Ronnie Vint was left furious as Harriett Blackmore admitted she had been with someone else since their split.
Ronnie was seen storming out of the bedroom and leaving Harriett to sleep alone.
Before the incident, Ronnie asked Harriett: “Have you been with other men since me?”
She replied: “Yeah,” with a shocked Ronnie asking: “What?”
Harriett confirmed that she had been with someone else, which prompted Ronnie to jump of bed and remove himself from the bedroom.
He then returned and asked Elma Pazar if he could sleep in the bed next to her, as they are still in a couple.
The next morning, Harriett told Catherine and best friend Grace that Ronnie’s overreaction was not justified.
She said: “He’s been with people when he was with me, I’ve got the ‘hey girl’ 100 times on Instagram. Two… I’ve been watching him kiss two different girls on TV.”
Grace added: “You’re not his property, if something has happened with someone else.”
Harriett explained: “What did he think was going to happen. He was just going to really hurt me, do what he wants when we were together and when we broke up and went our separate ways, he was going to be galivating around and doing whatever he wants and I was just sat at home with Flopsy, like no.”
Ronnie told Harriett: “I’ll take it like a man and I just want to know and I’ll move on from that. I don’t want it to be a big thing.”
He continued: “I just want it to be between me and you – a yes or no. And we move on.”
Harriett replied: “It’s just annoying because it just all got blown out of proportion.
“I didn’t like the way you acted after, you should have just waited till the morning and said ‘hey, can I speak to you?’
“But you were acting a little bit entitled last night.”
Ronnie explained: “It just hurts still because I look at you and ‘you’re mine’ type of thing,” which provoked Harriett to say: “But I’m not.”
He went on to say: “You were mine and there’s feelings there.”
She told him: “Yeah but Ronnie, I felt like that and I had to watch you crack on and do all these things.”
Ronnie insisted that he wanted to “squash” it and have a conversation to “learn from his mistakes”.
“I feel like communication we didn’t have last time,” he said.
“The communication, trust, honesty is all I want with you.”
The dramatic twists and turns in the Love Island All Stars villa have kept fans glued to their screens.
And The Sun revealed the latest All Stars bombshell is set to make splash.
The Sun can reveal that the girl heading in is Danielle Sellers who made a play for Olivia’s villa partner Chris Hughes back in 2017.
Since then she’s become a firm favourite among the Islanders and lives in Manchester – so is likely to have crossed paths with current cast members such as Scott Thomas and Grace Jackson.
Danielle is a former Sun page three girl.
A source said: “Danielle is smoking hot and is the ideal age for Scott as he’s drifting apart from Tina after the explosive Vegas row with Luca.”
Back in 2017, we told how the blonde bombshell had been seeing I’m A Celeb star Jack.
This was despite him growing close to Made in Chelsea star Georgia “Toff” Toffolo while in the jungle.
Jack and Danielle dated for around seven months and were introduced by Jack’s pop star older brother Conor.
Later that year she entered Love Island as a Casa Amor bombshell and was joined by Chyna Ellis, Ellisa-Jade White, Amelia Peters and Shannen McGrath.
Love Island All Stars is back on TV for season 2.
Here we take you through the line-up of all the Islanders who are in the villa so far.
Bombshells
Each series brings with it a string of hot single bombshells making their epic entrance into the villa.
Here’s who has joined the villa so far:
LOVE Island All Stars fans have shared their concerns for Luca Bish after he broke down in tears following his huge row with Scott Thomas.
Luca, 25, had tears running down his face while trying to clear the air with Scott in the latest episode of the ITV2 reality show.
The former fishmonger, who had a huge bust up with Scott during a game of Truth Or Dare, began crying as they attempted to patch things up.
Luca told Scott he “looks up to him”, as Scott – who says he sees himself as Luca’s “big brother” – apologised for “winding him up”.
“I love you,” Scott told Luca. “Come here. Bro, it’s all banter that went too far but I promise you, I didn’t want to bring out that side out of you.”
Hugging 36-year-old Scott, Luca agreed: “I didn’t want to bring it out of you. I look up to you, bro.”
The pair agreed to put their disagreement behind them, but fans are still worried about Luca.
This is the second time in this year’s Love Island All Stars that he has broken down in tears and viewers are wondering if he ‘needs help’.
Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, one fan wrote: “I’m worried about the bloke. He seems to be a bit all over the place. Up and down. Mostly down.”
Another said: “Luca’s not himself at all. I’m really worried about him.”
A third said: “I think someone needs to get Luca some help asap! He’s not been right since he’s been in the villa.”
And a fourth chimed in: “I’ve said it before n ill say it again, i’m sat here watching a young man #Luca absolutely broken, @LoveIsland needs to intervene.”
Luca and Scott were seen squaring up to each other during Sunday night’s episode of Love Island All Stars.
Tempers flared in a roulette game of Truth Or Dare during a Las Vegas-themed night.
The ball landed on a truth for Grace, to which Scott muttered that he “had one” before refusing to say it ‘out of respect’ for Luca.
Luca instantly became annoyed and said: “Say it. If you want to go there, go there?”
Scott insisted: “Bro I’m being respectful to you.”
The islanders were then forced to step in as the row escalated further.
Once calm, they tried to continue with the game, but it kicked off for a second time when Luca was dared to kiss the islander he thought ‘was there for fame’.
In a shock move, Luca kissed Scott on the cheek, saying he thinks he wants to get far in the villa.
Luca added: “That’s why you’re with Tina and you’re not feeling it now.”
Tina, who is coupled up with Scott, looked horrified and asked for someone to explain.
She eventually walked away crying, before shouting with fury in the girls’ dressing room.
Love Island All Stars is back on TV for season 2.
Here we take you through the line-up of all the Islanders who are in the villa so far.
Bombshells
Each series brings with it a string of hot single bombshells making their epic entrance into the villa.
Here’s who has joined the villa so far:
This is the second time Luca has broken down in tears during his latest Love Island stint.
Luca had to be comforted by his Love Island co-stars following Tina’s bombshell entrance on January 20.
Luca had been getting to know Tina and even shared a snog with her before she made her decision.
But when push came to shove, the Made In Chelsea star chose to steal Scott from India Reynolds, rather than Luca from Kaz Crossley.
India was dumped from the ITV2 show as a result and the highly-charged emotion of the night later got to Luca.
With everyone chilling in the garden, Luca suddenly began crying.
“I don’t know what I’m doing here. I’m fine honestly,” Luca said.
“It’s peaks and troughs in here. Yesterday was a peak, today is a trough.”
Meanwhile, Scott was also seen apologising to Tina in Monday’s episode but he admitted: “I wanted to say to you tonight that I’m worried I’m not fully in the same place you’re at.”
Tina burst into tears and told Scott she was “p***ed off” before announcing she was “withdrawing” and storming off.
