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THE HSE HAS written to hospitals reminding management that partners of pregnant women should expect to be present at 20-week scans unless there is a “documented risk” based on a Covid-19 or other outbreak.
In the letter from the HSE’s Chief Clinical Officer Dr Colm Henry, he outlines that all hospitals should ensure that they are “implementing the current national guidance” which would allow partners into scans.
The issue of restrictions at maternity hospitals has been raised repeatedly during the course of the pandemic but HSE CEO Paul Reid said yesterday he believed that “conditions are right” for partners to be allowed greater access.
Hospitals can make individual decisions on their own restrictions but Reid said yesterday that the HSE would be writing to all hospitals outlining the guidance that is in place.
In that memo, Henry cites Covid-19 guidance on visiting hospitals and says that it is “generally appropriate” to facilitate a partner visiting when someone is an inpatient in a maternity hospital. It notes that most stays are for a short duration.
The guidance states that partners should be facilitated during childbirth and if a child is in the neonatal unit.
In regards to 20-week scans, the memo adds:
Patients should normally expect to bring a partner or other accompanying person to their 20-week scan and to other appointments if there is reason to anticipate that the visit is likely to involve communication of particular emotional significance.
In his letter, Henry suggests that guidance has not been implemented by some hospitals in that partners are not be facilitated when they should.
Yesterday, The Journal spoke to several women who shared their pregnancy experience online in the under the hashtag ‘WhoseNeedsAreBeingMet’.
“I note that we continue to see reports in the media from women and their partners reporting that partners have not had access in circumstances in which it appears that they could expect to have access if the national guidance was implemented,” Henry says in the memo.
I am sure you agree that this is a cause of distress to patients and their partners at a very important time in their lives and should only happen if it is absolutely essential to safe operation of the maternity services.
“In that context I would be grateful if you could request that all HSE hospitals providing maternity services confirm that they are implementing the current national guidance.”
Henry notes that “there may be local operational issues such as an outbreak of Covid-19″ that require additional limits on access but that these should be in place “for a period of time”.
“However any such additional limits on should be based on a documented risk assessment that is reviewed regularly,” he adds.
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Same old same old… women really are treated like second class citizens in this country! Theres no way man would be treated so badly…!
@Pat Kelly: An yet, women in Ireland have a greater life expectancy than men. Strange isn’t it.
@Pat Farrelly: Women live longer than men in general, all over the world, even in less developed countries, it’s got nothing to do with their treatment.
@Pat Farrelly: the female advantage in longevity is based on an extensive number of factors which vary from area to area. Too many to list. But is mainly chromosomal and hormonal (eg males tend to have fattier organs and females have fattier skin) But the advantage is shortening in recent years in most developing countries.
So you can be less bitter soon maybe.
Of course they were,nothing to see here it was an oversight or just a “side effect”.
You might get an enquiry but no one will be held accountable and if you drop the case we might even compensate you.
It’s so sad, I was started on that medication over 20 years ago , and from day 1 I was warned about the risks , about 10 years ago they took me off it, they said that women of childbearing age shouldn’t be on it if possible. It’s scandalous that I was warned about it 20 years ago by my doctors, and other doctors never mentioned it to other women.
@Kim Keoghan: Doesn’t that suggest it was more a failing by doctors not the state? There is a problem with consultants with specialisations only treating that area and ignoring the whole patient. There is also a problem with communications between Drs and patients, which is not entirely on the Drs side. I suspect we’ll eventually have to introduce some form of recording of Dr – patient interactions that can be accessed if cases like this comes up so that we can actually hear what was discussed and what warnings, if any were provided. We’ve all taken medication that can have side effects, and many times we put the warnings out of our minds because we need the treatment. It’s only later if the side effects arise and if they’re serious that we try to remember if we were warned and was the warning strong enough.
Doctors have been dismissing women since medicine began. I’ve dealt with it many times.
Women have always been seen as hypersensitive or hypochondriac or too emotional or over anxious etc etc etc. That’s my experience and that was with female and male doctors. sodium valporate was first introduced in 1964, by 1984 it was already been associated with a number of anomalies affecting the neural tube, heart, limb, reproductive and urinary system, skin and facial features. And yet it took ’till 2019 for the warning to be put onto the product. 35 years! An apology is far from what is needed.
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