Partner access at mid-west maternity hospital

A further step in the gradual easing of partner restrictions at University Maternity Hospital Limerick came into effect from last Friday afternoon, August 13, with partners permitted to accompany women for the 12-week scan.

This follows new guidance issued by the Health Protection Surveillance Centre on August 5 in respect of the 12-week scan and c-section. University Maternity Hospital Limerick already facilitates partner access for elective and emergency sections.

We acknowledge that the continuing Covid-19 partner access restrictions are difficult for service users and their loved ones and we continue to review these safety measures at UMHL on a weekly basis. We continue to plan for the safe, controlled and phased relaxation of restrictions, and to ensure all processes are safely introduced and managed.

We are reorganising our service to ensure compliance with the new guidance around the 12-week scan and this will allow partners to attend for this scan. This involves offering women a separate ultrasound appointment which would previously have taken place on the same day as their antenatal appointment. Women who are booked in to the ante-natal clinic over the next three weeks are being contacted by the hospital to offer an alternative date for the 12-week scan which will allow their partner or one accompanying person to be present for the scan.

UMHL allows partners in the following areas, regardless of vaccination status, following the Covid-19 questionnaire and temperature screening:

· Labour ward – throughout labour and delivery

· Elective and Emergency c-section

· Anomaly scan

· EPAU ( Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit)

· Compassionate grounds

· Antenatal ward – 45 minute slots

· Postnatal ward – 45 minute slots

· NICU ( Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) / HDU ( High Dependency Unit)– 30 minutes slots

· Emergency high risk admissions

· 12 Week scan

In adopting the updated national guidance, we seek to balance the competing requirements for partners to be present and supporting women, while giving priority to the safety, welfare and privacy of all women and infants in our care, and our staff.

In taking decisions to implement or relax restrictions, UMHL has regard to three primary factors: the rate of Covid transmission within the local community, the number of staff in the hospital and the possibility of those staff becoming unwell, and the infrastructure of the hospital site. More recently, we particularly note the concerns nationally and internationally about the transmissibility of the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

While these restrictions have been difficult, they have been necessary, and effective.We are grateful for the cooperation of our patients and their families and the broader community. Thanks to their sacrifices, they ensured there has been no outbreak of Covid-19 in UMHL.

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