Birthing unit closes overnight

Palmerston North’s primary birthing unit Te Papaioea closed for 12 hours overnight on Monday because of a staffing shortage.

The Midcentral District Health Board operations executive for Te Uru Pa¯ Harakeke (Healthy Women, Children and Youth), Sarah Fenwick, confirmed sickness and levels of acute need meant staff had to be transferred to Palmerston North’s maternity unit for the night.

The centre was closed for postnatal stays, but women with their own lead maternity carer or midwife could still have given birth there.

Fenwick said no births were affected, and signage at the centre and transfer of phone lines to the hospital’s birthing suite meant anyone needing care was aware of the situation. The centre was back to normal at 7am yesterday.

The temporary closure follows a similar situation in October last year, when the Horowhenua maternity centre was available for births only for 10 days when Midcentral did not have enough staff to support Horowhenua, Palmerston North Hospital and Te Papaioea.

The staffing problem comes after Midcentral Health’s maternity service lost 19 midwives in the past two years, including nine in the past six months, and recruitment efforts and appointing more registered nurses had not made up the difference.

In March, Midcentral District Health Board chief executive Kathryn Cook said staffing shortages had occasionally meant mothers and babies’ care had been delayed.

‘‘However, care is always prioritised based on need and patient safety has not been impacted.’’

Caroline Conroy, joint leader of the midwives’ union Meras, said she was amazed by the board’s answers to questions about the maternity staffing crisis. ‘‘They make it sound like everything is OK.

‘‘There is no willingness to acknowledge the mess they are in.’’