A safety system introduced in maternity wards after Savita Halappanavar's death is not functioning properly in a number of hospitals.

The system alerts health staff when a pregnant woman's condition is deteriorating.

An audit carried out by the HSE between May and August last year at seven maternity units, showed only one, the Rotunda in Dublin, was operating the system properly.

The Irish Independent reports that the main failing was that staff weren't doing repeat observations of the patient in the recommended time frame.

Those where deficiencies were found included University Hospital Galway, where Savita Halappanavar died.

The HSE responded with by stating: 

"iMEWS has been fully implemented in all 19 maternity units. 8 sites were chosen initially to allow for an audit of iMEWS and all sites will be audited.

The selection of sites was to ensure that we had a representative sample across stand alone maternity sites, combined adult/maternity sites and different size units.

Seven sites completed their review within the agreed timeframe. A draft report of the seven audits was submitted and this is expected to be finalised within the coming weeks.  A full review of this audit report will be undertaken at the January meeting. It is anticipated that the audit of the eighth site will be completed within the coming weeks. An Action plan with clear timelines will be agreed from each audit.

The remaining sites will be scheduled in the coming weeks."

This morning, Sam Coulter Smith, Master at the Rotunda Hospital, spoke to Shane Coleman on Pat Kenny about concern for the safety procedure.

"If you're going to provide quality services, then you need appropriate numbers of staff and appropriately trained staff. We've had the perfect storm in this country over the last couple of years.

"We've gone from a situation where there was a lot of money in the system but the opportunities for improving infrastructure weren't taken to a situation where we moved to a reduction in salaries, infrastructure which is no longer fit for purpose and demand levels of service which we just can't meet."

You can listen to his full interview here: