In Limerick, women who need maternity services have long enjoyed an excellent system. It is called a midwife-led series of community clinics. Effectively, what it means is that a woman will deal with the same midwife during the entire course of her pregnancy. In the past 48 hours, without any notice to anybody, the HSE has pre-emptively decided to terminate that service, allegedly because of a shortage of staff. I cannot overstate the anxiety, angst and distress this has caused. I have been inundated with phone calls to my house, my office, etc., from women, some of whom have been pregnant for quite a while. Is it possible to get this reversed? That is what people want to know and it is what people have asked me to raise here today. Will the Minister check out the situation and get back to me as quickly as possible?

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