A maternity hospital where 72 babies were born in 48 hours is under huge pressure to fill vital roles, it was claimed on Thursday.
The master of Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital Fergal Malone said there are 35 vacancies for nurses and midwives and described wards as the “Florence Nightingale-type”.
Mr Malone was speaking on RTE’s Liveline yesterday after a caller told of the issues his wife endured earlier this week due to low staffing levels.
Laiju said the hospital was “not safe” because of how many patients there was compared to the number of midwives and nurses.
His wife Silty gave birth to their fourth child on Tuesday. He took it upon himself to change her bedsheets as he said he understood the pressure the staff were under as he is a nurse in Beaumont Hospital.
Laiju said: “It is not a safe practice with so many patients and so few midwives and nurses.”
After hearing his story, Mr Malone phoned in and explained the hospital has been extremely busy, adding: “We could have days where the numbers are very low and days were they are much higher.
“Deliveries don’t arrive in smooth numbers.
“We have 35 vacancies for nurses and midwives at the moment.
“We are almost running to a standstill. It’s very hard to find nurses and midwives at the moment.
“It’s a tough call trying to recruit at the moment. It’s very, very hard.
“I have some wards where I have 10 mothers and their babies in one room sharing two bathrooms.
“From our perspective it doesn’t meet any basic standard of dignity and we have been highlighting this for a number of years to the HSE and to the Department of Health. We still have Florence Nightingale-type wards.”
