Pregnant women could be refused delivery

PREGNANT women turned away from the National Maternity Hospital because of a restriction on number will not be able to deliver in the two other Dublin maternity hospitals, the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) said last night.

Responding to a hard-hitting attack on the Government from a former master of Holles Street, the Department of Health said yesterday that talks were ongoing with the Dublin maternity hospitals so that spillovers from one hospital can be transferred to another. However, the INO dismissed any suggestion that the Rotunda or the maternity wing at the Coombe, will "automatically take on those patients" who are refused delivery at Holles St because of its planned cap on numbers.

"There is no surplus in the system anywhere. Staff at every Dublin maternity hospital are overworked and understaffed and we have shouting about this for three years just like the A&E crisis," said INO Secretary General Liam Doran.