HEALTH Minister James Reilly has been asked to speed up the relocation of the regional maternity hospital from its current site on Limerick’s Ennis Road to the University Hospital Limerick (UHL) campus in Dooradoyle.
Labour Party City Councillor Tom Hannon submitted a motion at County Hall this Monday calling for the Maternity Hospital to be relocated at Dooradoyle as a matter of priority in order to provide “safer care for the mothers of the mid-west region”.
As the largest of the country’s 19 maternity units, the Ennis Road hospital delivers between 4,500 and 5,000 babies annually — around seven per cent of the national total.
Cllr Hannon pointed out that it has neither an intensive care unit, a high dependency unit or proper X-ray facilities.
“It is the only maternity unit in the country without a blood bank on site. Given the frequency of serious haemorrhages in obstetric care, this represents a hazard to patient safety. Critically-ill mothers have to be shipped regularly by emergency ambulance across town to avail of these facilities in Dooradoyle — and are consequently separated from their newborn babies, possibly for several days,” claimed Cllr Hannon.
“A site has been set aside in Dooradoyle but it awaits the go-ahead and funding from central government and the HSE. In addition to the lack of critical care facilities, the standard of accommodation for mothers is from a different age when there was not the same knowledge and concern about hospital-acquired infections,” he added.
Claiming that four mothers are obliged to share a single shower and toilet in a public post-natal ward, he warned of the “considerable risk of transmission of infection”, leaving aside the obvious concerns about privacy and comfort.
“The medical staff who provide maternity services are spread very thinly over numerous sites in the region. This makes it very difficult to operate the service efficiently and safely,” he said.
He calculated that an investment of €150 million to build a new maternity hospital on the main site would create between 1000 and 1500 construction jobs and could reduce the government deficit by up to €30 million a year.
“If the new maternity hospital included beds and facilities for elective and emergency gynaecology services, it would alleviate the persistent problem of over-crowding at UHL. The money for the new maternity hospital could be raised through a specially-marketed offering of the National Solidarity Bonds,” he suggesteded.
Seconding the motion, Cllr Brigid Teefy (IND) said extra facilities have been “very badly needed” at the maternity for years.
Cllr James Collins (FF) also supported the motion and said he believed centralising the maternity at UHL made sense.
