Protest to health board
after Domino birth scheme dropped
Lorna Siggins

Supporters of the Domino and Home Births Scheme in the western region protested outside the Western Health Board's (WHB) monthly meeting in Galway yesterday.

The Domino scheme has been run in the Western Health Board area of Galway, Mayo and Roscommon since 1999 by a team of midwives based at University Hospital Galway who carry out all the checks and tests that would otherwise be conducted by a consultant gynaecologist.

Parents For Choice in Birthing said they were "outraged" at
the WHB's decision to cancel the scheme. The last baby
born under the programme was delivered in the region last week. The group says that it has been promised a meeting
with the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Martin. "There
is every possibility that this scheme,which is now the subject
of a national re-evaluation, could be reconstituted next year," Ms Ann Irwin of the group said yesterday during the protest
at Merlin Park Hospital in Galway.

However, in the meantime, the midwives involved have been absorbed into other duties and so all that expertise will have been lost, Ms Irwin said. She added that it was "incredible and unbelieveable" that a cost-effective scheme with such a high satisfaction rate among participants could be closed down.

The Western Health Board has defended the decision to cut
the scheme. Mr Martin has already expressed surprise at the WHB's decision to cease funding the scheme and has sought
a report from the board. The health board says it needs the resources to fund the appointment of a consultant neonatologist at University Hospital Galway