Midwife shortage fuels early discharges

The shortage of staff at the new Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) is resulting in the early discharge of mothers and their newborn babies, high birth intervention rates and waiting for beds, according to the Irish Nurses Organisation (INO).

A recruitment drive has been launched to find additional midwives for the hospital where there are 22 babies being born every day. More than 1,700 mothers have given birth in the €75 million hospital since it opened on March 31st last.

The hospital was so busy over two recent periods that mothers were being discharged as late as 10pm to free up beds.

When CUMH opened, it had a staff of 312.5 whole-time equivalents (WTEs) and this number now stands at 322 WTEs. (One whole-time equivalent post could be filled by two or three people who work reduced hours with their combined hours making up one full-time post).

INO industrial relations officer Patsy Doyle said the current problems at the hospital could be addressed only with the appointment of additional staff and the differentiation between student and qualified midwives.

"All the problems that the midwives predicted when the hospital opened prematurely - such as early discharge, waiting for beds and high intervention rates - have unfortunately happened," she said.

Ms Doyle said there were vacancies in every grade at CUMH and the showcase facility that the women of Cork had been promised had not materialised. She accused the HSE of not delivering on its promise to adequately staff the new hospital.

As part of a national recruitment campaign, permanent and temporary posts at CUMH have been advertised nationally by the HSE on an ongoing basis and two days of interviews are due to take place next week.

The recruitment campaign is also under way in England, Scotland, Greece and Australia.

A spokeswoman for the HSE South said 31 student midwives who will qualify in September have been offered permanent midwifery posts within CUMH - to date, 21 have indicated they will be taking up permanent posts.

"Since CUMH opened in March, 15 additional midwives have been recruited and nine additional beds have been opened," she said.

The HSE initially opened 128 of the 144 beds at CUMH and there are currently 137 beds open.

The spokeswoman said everything possible was being done to ensure that additional staff were recruited as quickly as possible and to get remaining beds open.