The HSE has been urged to organise an independent probe into maternity care provided at the Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise over the past 10 years.

Patient Focus has called on the HSE to take action as a result of concerns raised in a TV documentary about the events surrounding the deaths of babies at the maternity unit of the Midland Regional Hospital, Portlaoise.

An RTE Prime Time investigation tonight will claim that there were failures in treatment and a failure to implement safety improvement recommendations in relation to the deaths of a number of infants born at the hospital.

Patient Focus says hospital management must be held accountable for not ensuring that these recommendations were acted upon speedily and health professionals too had responsibility for the quality of care they provided to women and babies.

It wants a wide-ranging independent investigation into the maternity care provided at the unit going back 10 years and called on Health Minister James Reilly to consider as a matter of urgency the need for a wider review in relation to the care provided to mothers and babies in other maternity units.

It says the HSE must set up a helpline for women due to give birth in the near future at Portlaoise, in order to deal with concerns.

Patient Focus also says the HSE must contact anyone who may have been involved in an adverse event or review or investigation at the unit in the past fund a second opinion for all those so concerned.

The patient support group said it was alarming that the recommendations of several reviews seemed to have been ignored at the Portlaoise unit, and this appeared to lead to the unnecessary deaths of babies.

The programme claims a report into the death of one baby in 2008 found there were a number of failings in the care provided by the hospital. A number of recommendations were made in the report to improve safety.

It is also claimed that that other babies subsequently died in very similar circumstances and that the review of these cases also found failings in care. The programme claims the hospital and HSE had failed to implement previous safety recommendations in full.

The programme also alleges that neither the hospital nor the HSE informed the bereaved families that an investigation had taken place in their case or that a report had been produced until years later.