The team of midwives at the La Paz University Hospital have decided to take a step forward, as have the emergency doctors, and have reported to the Court of Guard the precarious situation in which the service has been for months due to the personnel shortage due to “uncovered incidents”, which have caused such “striking” situations as births without an epidural or in the rooms instead of the delivery room.
In the letter sent to the court, the midwives of the hospital’s night shift on January 7 stress that this “serious situation” in the Emergency Department, Delivery Room and Prepartum-Pathological Pregnancy Unit “it is not a specific problem” and prevents “guaranteeing maternal-fetal safety.”
According to the complaint, for the service to function correctly there must be a total of 11 midwives per shift, but On the night of January 7 there were only 6 for 10 open delivery rooms. The midwives emphasize that they have “repeatedly” informed the hospital’s nursing management of the situation, as well as the nursing supervisor on duty, but insist that “no measures have been taken to guarantee minimum services.” .
“We do not want to be complicit in the serious risk that our pregnant women and their babies run, despite our efforts to be less staff than agreed by the Ministry of Health and therefore not be able to guarantee maternal-fetal safety,” the complaint states.
Staff cuts and uncovered leave
In line with this, the Peace Network Workers Union has assured elEconomista.es that for years a “general policy of staff cuts” has been implemented in the hospital that is “causing havoc” in the operation of the center and “affecting the quality of care that patients receive.” “Managers are encouraged not to hire”said Guillén del Barrio, an emergency nurse from La Paz and member of the Workers in Red union.
To this policy of zero hiring we must add, always according to information from the TERE union, that The hospital does not cover workers’ sick leave either.. In this sense, Guillén del Barrio explains that if a midwife leaves, the hospital takes an average of three weeks to bring in a replacement, which forces other colleagues to work more hours and accumulate days off that they cannot enjoy later. because there are not enough staff.
“This situation creates a perverse system where people are beaten because there are not enough workers“said the nurse, who insists that the solution to all this problem is to “be what you have to be” on each shift.
The lack of personnel in the team of midwives in La Paz has caused “very striking” situationssuch as mothers who had to give birth without an epidural or who had to do so in the room instead of the delivery room set up for this purpose, the TERE union has also highlighted in a statement released this Wednesday, where they recall that already in December 2022 midwives of the service notified a similar situation before the Court of Guard.
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