National Paediatric Mortality Register Annual Report 2025: Improving Patient Care With National Clinical Audits

National Paediatric Mortality Register Annual Report 2025

This is the second report published from the National Paediatric Mortality Register (NPMR) since it came under the governance of NOCA in 2020.The NPMR aims to collect, analyse and report on data relating to all deaths in children aged under 19 years in the Republic of Ireland.

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of child mortality and to demonstrate the need for a universal, centralised system for the notification of deaths that will permit analysis and timely reporting of data on child mortality. This report provides a detailed analysis of data on mortality in children and young people in Ireland from 2019 to 2023, with a focus on 2022 and 2023 data. It highlights the need for timely and reliable data that will inform policy aimed at addressing the number of deaths, a large proportion of which are preventable.

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Key Findings

Between 2022 and 2023, there were a total of 612 deaths, 363 among infants under 1 year, 145 in children aged 1–14 years and 104 in young people aged 15–18 years registered in Ireland. The data show that despite a decline in many causes of children and young people (CYP) mortality, overall mortality in infants and older children has either plateaued or increased during the years covered by this report. The greatest number of deaths occur in infants and older adolescents, many of which are potentially preventable, such as those resulting from sudden infant death syndrome or trauma.

Key Recommendations

Recommendation 1

The National Office of Clinical Audit (NOCA) must urgently progress the implementation of an electronic data collection system in order to allow for the timely submission of CYP mortality data to the NPMR, and engage with the Health Service Executive (HSE) Access to Information Health Identifiers (A2i HIDs) team to request the utilisation of the IHI in paediatric settings in order to support the NPMR.

Recommendation 2

Detailed analysis of infection-related deaths in children is warranted. Statutory and other appropriate data sources should be interrogated and together with input from appropriate stakeholders, a review of infection-related CYP deaths included as a spotlight report in the next NPMR report.

Recommendation 3

NOCA should contribute to the evidence base required to inform policy around suicide prevention by reviewing data relating to the circumstances of potential suicide deaths among children and young people, to support stakeholders e.g. the HSE National Office of Suicide Prevention in their work.

Recommendation 4

Detailed, accurate, and timely information regarding the circumstances of SIDS deaths is required to make further improvements in the prevention of these deaths. NOCA should support the HSE Child Health Public Health function in its investigation of SIDS deaths in order to help establish the epidemiological profile of SIDS deaths in Ireland and identify any high-risk groups and supporting actions.