Over 590 clinical incidents at Mayo maternity unit reported last year

A total of 598 clinical incident at the maternity unit of Mayo University Hospital were reported to the National Incident Management System last year.

The details were outlined at yesterday's meeting of the HSE West in response to a question by Clare Councillor Antoinette Baker Bashua.

It is the policy of the HSE that all incidents are identified, reported and reviewed so that learning from events can be shared.

A spokesperson said: "We actively encourage our staff to report incidents, so we can identify and change the individual or system-level factors contributing to the incident.

"By systematically documenting and analysing all incidents, from minor/negligible to adverse events, we can identify patterns, uncover root causes and implement strategies to prevent reoccurrence."

Incidents are categorised based on the level of harm: Category 1 (Major/Extreme), Category 2 (Moderate), or Category 3 (Minor/Negligible), with Category 1 incidents being the most serious.

Statistics in respect of other hospitals in the region are as follows: Limerick 674, Letterkenny 759, Sligo 598, Galway 123 and Portiuncula 467.

It should be noted that point of occurrence direct data entry to the NIMS only became available in Galway University Hospital in January 2025 and in Mayo University Hospital in February 2025.

Consequently, not all incidents would have been uploaded to the NIMS during 2024 as this required manual transfer of data from the Q Pulse System.

It is understood a small percentage of the reported incidents were category 1.