There are not enough doctors to properly care for mothers and their babies. The neonatology department of the maternity ward Joan of Flanders of the Lille hospital center, the largest in France, directs patients and newborns to other hospitals in the region and in Belgium, we learned from the hospital on Friday.
Due to a “restriction of neonatology reception capacities” linked to the absence of doctors, the hospital called on “partner maternity wards”: these include those in Roubaix, at the Bois clinics and from Saint-Vincent to Lille, but also from Valenciennes or even from the Charleroi hospital center in Belgium, the hospital indicated, confirming information from France Bleu Nord.
Solutions by “early May”
“The simultaneous absences of doctors prevent the medical team remaining on duty from managing the children,” said the CHRU, without giving figures. Also, “we currently do not have the capacity to manage the usual volume of activity in neonatology”, but “serious and complex” cases remain at the Jeanne de Flandres maternity ward which is level 3 (able to accommodate high-risk pregnancies). ) and which records more than 5,000 births per year. It is a “cyclical” problem, “we are looking for solutions” with a deadline of “early May”, added the hospital.
Transfers and orientation decisions are decided “on a case-by-case basis by a doctor, we ensure that the receiving establishment is able to accommodate these children, the reorientation of future mothers or babies is done as quickly as possible. security,” he assured. For Matthieu Collart, general secretary of the CGT at the CHRU, this raises “a lack of medical resources” which “occasionally generates incapacity to provide care”. “The hospital operates on a tight schedule, we are paying the price for a lack of proactive policy in terms of resources,” he said.