A SENIOR doctor has warned that mothers and their newborn babies may die because the Health Service Executive and Department of Health have “no plans” to deal with an impending staff-shortage crisis at the Mid-Western Regional Maternity Hospital.
Dr Gerry Burke, consultant obstetrician at the hospital in Limerick, said 47 midwives would take early retirement next month to secure pensions.
“By the end of February, the maternity hospital in Limerick will have lost 47 midwives from its complement of just over 200 in the executive’s retirement scheme.
“No plans to deal with the shortfall have been presented by the HSE or the Department of Health. The shortfall of over 20 per cent of midwifery staff will diminish the quality of maternity care these women and babies receive,” said Dr Burke.
“It is obvious that the HSE is prepared to collude with the Department of Health in making pregnant women and their newborn babies contribute to paying for the gambling losses of German and other international banks and for the fiscal recklessness of previous governments. Unfortunately, some women and babies may pay for it with their lives,” he added.
The hospital provides care to more than 6,000 women and about 5,200 newborn infants every year in the midwest region, including Co Clare.
“Having babies is the core business of human beings. Therefore, the provision of safe maternity services is among the most fundamental duties of the Government. An attack on the country’s maternity services represents a step in the disintegration of civil society. It must not go unchallenged. The community must resist it in the strongest possible terms,” said Dr Burke.
The maternity hospital, which is 50 years old, has been struggling with the large increase in births over the past five years, according to Dr Burke.
He said there were “increasingly unconvincing and nebulous plans” to relocate the maternity hospital to a new building on the site of the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle, Limerick.
“I predict that the relocation of a Dublin maternity hospital (such as moving the Coombe to Tallaght) will be given priority. It should not be beyond the midwest region’s resources to build a new maternity hospital for itself and to sort out the regional hospital’s separate capacity issues.”
Dr Burke also called for the maternity hospital and the regional hospital in Limerick “to be taken from the control of the HSE” and new hospitals constructed in their place.
“The midwest region has a population of 380,000. An investment of €150 million would cost us each about €20 a year for 20 years. Indeed, some of the money could be raised through the issuing of government-backed bonds.
“There is no reason that a regional authority could not be empowered by legislation to raise the money through a bond issue and by other means. Moreover, such an investment would create about 1,500 direct construction jobs for the duration of the building project, a huge boost to the city and the region. There is an urgent need to remove the mid-west’s hospital from the control of the HSE, which has been very detrimental to the midwest region, and place them under local democratic control. Elected representatives, answerable to the local community, must take control again.”
Dr Burke, who is active in the Labour Party in Limerick, added: “Our new President, Michael D Higgins, has told us that in order to build a real Republic, we need to engage in active citizenship – ‘to be the arrow, not the target’ was how he put it in his inauguration address. It’s time for us to take heed of that.”