Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda
Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda has a shortage of 25 midwives on its staff, according to a new survey by the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO).
Based on the Birthrate Plus workforce planning tool in the UK, it recommends one midwife for every 29.5 births.
There are currently 99 midwives in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital but considering there were 3,654 births there in the last year, this amounts to a ratio of 1:37.
None of the hospitals with maternity services in Ireland met the Birthrate Plus criteria, leading to the INMO to brand the current practices as “unsafe”.
In total the INMO reckons the country needs an additional 621 midwives across our nation’s hospitals.
