Doctors step up efforts to delay rollout date for abortion service
THE Health Minister remains determined to introduce abortion services in January despite doctors stepping up efforts to delay services due to ‘serious resource issues’.
A number of doctors concerned about the ‘unrealistic’ January deadline recently sent a joint letter to the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists calling for an extraordinary general meeting to be held to delay services, a request which the institute has since agreed to.
However, a spokesman for Simon Harris said bringing in services in January remains an ‘absolute commitment’ for the minister, adding that delays to services will result in more women having to travel abroad.
‘The minister accepts some medical practitioners are raising genuine concerns and he is committed to working with them to address those issues,’ the spokesperson said.
‘However, the minister’s commitment to providing care for women in this country will not waiver. He believes there should be no unnecessary delays to the
‘Serious threat to health’
introduction of this service.’
The spokesperson added that Minister Harris will engage with various stakeholder at a meeting on Monday.
Former master of the Coombe Dr Chris Fitzpatrick, who was one of the signatures on the letter, said that rushing the introduction of abortion services will cause a ‘serious threat to the health and wellbeing of women’.
‘I say this as a doctor who is working with others to introduce this service as quickly and as safely as possible,’ he wrote in yesterday’s Irish Times.
‘In an unprecedented departure from the normal clinical practice, we may well have a situation in January in which those of us who are not conscientious objectors may find ourselves under pressure to undertake certain medical procedures for which we have received little or no training.’
Professor Sam Coulter-Smith, consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology and former master of the Rotunda, told RTÉ the introduction of the service was moving fast while many issues remain unclear.
He said that among the issues that need to be clarified are how the remains should be disposed of, and what actions would be allowed if a woman who was just days away from reaching the 12week cut-off point.
‘We’d all love to see a quality service incorporated into a comprehensive women’s health service with appropriate access, counselling services, contraception and all the things associated with a quality service. There are serious resources issues around all that,’ he said.
He said gynaecology services are already ‘overburdened’, adding: ‘We’re now asking that a service take on a very significant additional demand without necessarily understanding what the impact of that is going to be.’
The Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said that a meeting to discuss the implementation of abortion services will be arranged in due course. It said: ‘This meeting will give members the opportunity to express an opinion on the implementation of the new service, and in particular the safety and readiness of such new services.’
‘Numbers are uncertain’
Peter Boylan, clinical adviser to the National Women and Infants Health Programme, supports the introduction going ahead in January. When asked about the concerns of doctors, he told RTÉ that medical terminations will be carried out through the prescription of tablets in the earlier stage of pregnancy, and that a surgical termination will be similar to the surgical procedure required after a miscarriage.
He added that later terminations are already in place in hospitals, and have been since the introduction of the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013, so there ‘shouldn’t be any confusion’ about the procedure.
‘I think it’s just that there’s an anxiety as it’s coming down to the beginning of January and people are wondering how is this actually going to work,’ Dr Boylan said. ‘Clearly the numbers are uncertain.
‘We know for example that 3,500 or more women have given Irish addresses and it’s likely that that figure is a huge underestimate, but when you spread out the numbers across the country and across the year, it boils down to relatively few cases will be necessary to be treated surgically.’