Review of maternity ward workload underway - Health Division

UPDATED - Internal discussions are still being held by the senior management of Mater Dei Hospital in order to review the way the maternity workload is currently divided, the Health Division said today.

Reacting to a statement issued earlier by the the MUMN, the division said professional staff members were currently working on several measures to ensure that the workload was evened out.

More meetings are planned over the coming days.

"The Health Division believes that through constructive dialogue, effective solutions can be found."

In its statement, the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses said that while it recognised the new tentative measures taken by the Health Division to regulate and reduce the number birth inductions, it felt that these measures would not have the desired results.

Following up its complaints last week about a high number of induced births, the MUMN said that other health services such as the NHS in the UK have implemented guidelines and protocols to regulate inductions and such protocols were available even to the general public.

Furthermore, although three years ago the Health Division initiated a register where elective inductions could be booked and planned beforehand within the Maternity Department, as to avoid overcrowding, Maltese consultants were not booking inductions beforehand and the register remained empty.

"Such lack of collaboration is causing great harm both to the mothers and to the midwives since mothers are being continuously transferred to wards not designed to take in mother/child as to be able to admit new mothers in the main delivery suite."

The MUMN called on the Health Division to issue protocols and guidelines like the NHS‘s protocol, to all doctors, regulating the inductions in Mater Dei hospitals.

The existing register to book inductions also needed to be strictly adhered to.

The MUMN said it was doing its utmost to avoid any industrial actions and was giving the Health Division two weeks to come up with the necessary protocols and a proper registration system.

See MAM's views on http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110103/local/mam-defends-gynaecologists

Meanwhile, the Malta College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in a statement denied allegations made in the press regarding their practice.

"The College would like to particularly emphasise that the clinical practice regarding confinements at Mater Dei does not in any way generate any revenue for the said consultants. Certain statements that have appeared in the media accusing the consultants of putting financial gain before the interests of their patients are unfounded and firmly and categorically denied."

The College expressed its solidarity with the specialists in view of the abuse they have had to sustain.

"It is noteworthy that the wellbeing of the mother and their babies has steadily improved and ranks as one of the best in Europe," it said.

"The College would further like to point out that this media campaign has not been initiated by a patient-led group but by a trade union. The College is convinced that if a patient satisfaction survey was to be carried out the results would show that the service offered at Mater Dei is second to none."