HSE approves 22 additional midwife posts for struggling hospital

TWENTY-TWO additional midwife posts have been approved for a hospital in the north east, which the Health Service Executive (HSE) yesterday admitted is struggling to cope.

Maternity services at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co Louth, are at “serious risk” due to critical staffing shortages, according to a report by a high-powered HSE task force. Patrick Kinder, chairman of the maternity services task force for the north east, expressed his concerns in a letter to the HSE’s national hospitals’ office last October.

Mr Kinder, whose comments were reported in a newspaper yesterday, said there was an “urgent need to review staffing and accommodation requirements” in the hospital’s maternity unit.

He said the hospital had experienced a 90% increase in births since 1999, but no equivalent increase in midwives and that the amount of overtime due to staff shortages was “not sustainable”.

Figures supplied to him by the hospital management showed that, last September, 16 midwives worked 628 hours of overtime.

Mr Kinder said it was critical to review the recruitment process to avoid delays in filling posts.

In his letter, he added that the total number of mothers treated in the Drogheda hospital is set to rise 92%, from 2,031 in 1999, to an estimated 3,900 in 2006. The number of midwives increased 16%, from 57 in 2000 to 66 last year.

A HSE statement said it was “very aware of how pressured the current health system is in the north east”.

The statement said theissues raised were “being taken seriously by the HSE” and that management and staff were engaged inaddressing them.

A consultant’s report commissioned by the HSE has recommended that a new hospital be built in the north east, but until then, the HSE said it will be“improving and increasing our services”.

The following developments are taking place at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital: a new 25 bay A&E, with an operational date of early 2008; two new floors built above the A&E to create more space; approval for 22 new midwife posts; three new anaesthetist posts and two specialist nurse posts.

The maternity unit at the Drogheda hospital is no stranger to controversy. Dr Michael Neary, found guilty of professional misconduct by the Medical Council for the unnecessary removal of women’s wombs, and subsequently struck off, worked at the hospital for many years.