Baby boom puts patients ‘at risk’

PREGNANT women and babies are being put at risk because services at the country’s largest maternity hospital are so overstretched.

Dr Declan Keane, Master of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, has warned patient care was

being compromised due to massive demand and poor staffing levels.

Last year the Dublin hospital delivered 8,162 babies the first time in 20 years that more than 8,000 mothers gave birth there.

Birth rates at the hospital are already up 5.9% on this time last year, putting the hospital on track to deliver 8,644 babies by the end of 2003.

"We were overstretched last year and the situation is even worse this year. We have more and more patients and no resources to hire extra staff to look after them.

That means cutting corners. If you cut corners then safety is an issue," Dr Keane said.

The hospital was never designed to deal with these kinds of numbers, he said.

"The hospital needs to expand or move and since we are located in Dublin city centre the only place we could expand to is on top of the car park, which is not feasible.

"We are meeting the Minister for Health in September to forcefully push for the national maternity unit to be moved to St Vincent's Hospital," said Dr Keane.

Despite limiting the numbers of women attending Holles Street from Meath, Kildare and Wicklow for routine obstetric care, deliveries are still climbing.

Dr Keane said the influx of heavily pregnant asylum seekers had not been addressed, despite the Supreme Court ruling which said that while all children born here were automatically entitled to citizenship, their parents were not entitled to automatic residency.

"The situation has not got any better, if anything it has got worse. There is no disincentive to coming here because no one has been deported. These women are still travelling," he said.

As well as a major staffing crisis, Dr Keane said many of the wards were unsuitable for patients in terms of privacy or nursing care.

"We still have Florence Nightingale-type wards with 14 women to a ward." Irish Nurses' Organisation general secretary Liam Doran criticised "the madness" of the Department of Finance for using an accountancy approach to managing the nation's health.

"There is a cap on all health agencies for hiring staff. Given the demands on the health system, managers have to be allowed to hire more people to meet the needs." Instead they are closing wards," he said.

Labour's health spokesperson, Liz McManus, said the situation in Holles Street was extremely worrying.