Women face ‘dangerous’ wait for ops
FEMALE patients of Scotland’s biggest health board are facing ‘life-threatening’ delays after miscarriage.
Women who lose their babies before birth are having to wait up to five weeks for operations to remove the foetus, it has been claimed.
Instead of the previous arrangement where the womb would be evacuated the same day, women are being sent home with antibiotics while they wait for surgery, campaigners have claimed.
WOMEN who suffer a miscarriage in the Glasgow region are routinely facing “life-threatening” delays of up to five weeks for a surgical procedure to remove the foetus, it has been claimed.
Health board bosses were told that staff shortages meant that women who had lost their baby were being sent away with antibiotics while they waited weeks for an operation to evacuate their womb, which in the past would have been carried out on the day.
In one case, they were told that a woman had to be rushed to hospital by ambulance for emergency treatment after she suffered a haemorrhage while waiting for the procedure, known as dilation and curettage (D&C).
The issue was highlighted during the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde annual review meeting.
Jean Anne Mitchell, a member of stillbirth and neonatal death charity, Sands, said five-week waiting times for D&C were “normal across the board”.
Ms Mitchell, who lost a son to stillbirth 21 years ago, said: “Nineteen years ago Glasgow was a flagship for maternity services. We had the best facilities. If women needed a D&C it was done on the day, or the next day. In 2017, young women are being sent away to come back up to five weeks later.
“If you’ve lost a baby, you don’t want to go away for five weeks and think about it and worry about haemorrhaging. We had a case recently where a mother had been sent away with antibiotics and told she would have to wait five weeks for a D&C. In the meantime, she haemorrhaged and was admitted under blue light. What was a catastrophe be- came a disaster. We’re going back to the dark ages. It’s unsafe.”
Ms Mitchell, who stood as the Labour candidate for West Dunbartonshire in May’s General Election, blamed the situation on the Scottish Government’s decision to cut in the number of student nurses and midwives at the start of the decade, saying it had left maternity wards understaffed as older nurses retired.
She added that Sands was also concerned by cases of premature babies being sent as far away as Aberdeen because their local neonatal unit was short-staffed. In some cases, mothers who had undergone a caesarean were not well enough to travel and ended up miles away from their baby.
Ms Mitchell added: “What’s the point of having the equipment and technology if we don’t have the staff?”
A spokesman for NHS GGC said: “The nurse director listened to the question raised by an audience member and arranged to get more details in order to look in to the issue raised.”
Health Secretary Shona Robison said nurse and midwife training places had now been increased to record levels, with an extra 2,600 funded places over the course of the parliament. She added that Scotland was performing best in the UK for rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths.
Meanwhile, campaigners protested outside Queen Elizabeth University Hospital yesterday while the meeting was taking place.
The group, who include vulnerable patients, were joined by Labour leadership candidate Anas Sarwar.
They argue that cuts to NHS budgets will see some of the vital services they depend on completely withdrawn, and are calling for plans to be reconsidered.